Commercial fire and smoke work has an order. We follow it.
A commercial fire leaves two problems in one building: soot and odor, plus the water used to put it out. In a managed property there's a third, which is that the spaces nobody thinks were affected usually are, because smoke travels through everything the air does.
Two damage types, one sequence, in this order
Order matters more here than in any other loss type. Cleaning soot before the water is removed drives residue into materials, and running air movers before containment is up spreads smoke into unaffected tenancies.
Secure it, assess it, seal it off
Once the fire service releases the building, the first job is stopping the damage spreading: openings closed, the affected zone sealed off, and the air conditioning serving it shut down so smoke stops moving through shared ductwork into other spaces.
Suppression water out first
Sprinkler and hose water is often the larger part of the loss, and it's on a clock. Extraction and drying start before soot cleaning, because wet soot behaves completely differently from dry soot.
Map where the smoke went
Smoke migrates along air paths, through risers and above ceilings into adjacent units and floors. We inspect and document beyond the fire area, because that's where disputes about scope usually arise later.
Soot and residue cleaning
Cleaned by surface type and residue type rather than one method everywhere. Non-salvageable porous materials are removed and documented; hard surfaces are cleaned and verified.
Odor
Odor is treated by removing or properly cleaning what's holding it. Where a treatment beyond cleaning is needed we tell you exactly what it's and how it'll be carried out before it happens.
Documentation and handoff
Photographs, affected-area determination, materials removed, readings from the drying side, and a written scope. Reconstruction goes to a licensed contractor, and our scope is written so they can price it.
Where the scope usually gets argued about
Fire claims in managed buildings are reviewed carefully. These are the six points we document hardest, because they're the ones that get questioned.
What we don't do on a fire loss
We don't perform reconstruction. Rebuilding what the fire and the removal took out goes to a licensed general contractor, working from our written scope. See how a job runs.
We don't run contents pack-out, storage or restoration as a standalone service. Where contents need specialist handling we document their condition and coordinate with the provider you or your carrier appoints.
And we aren't fire investigators. Cause and origin is a fire marshal or an investigator's determination. We document the condition we find and work within their findings.
What matters before cleanup begins
Fire losses in managed buildings get worse in specific, avoidable ways during the first day.
Fire or smoke damage in a property you manage?
Call once the building is released. Tell us the floor, the affected area and whether sprinklers activated.
Nothing gets sealed in.
Call before anyone cleans. The order the work happens in decides whether the odor comes back.