News and Research (nfpa.org) reports that 26 percent of fires reported from 2015 to 2019 are house fires. Around 75 percent of deaths and 72 percent of injuries were caused by residential fires. Reports also show that the primary causes for these accidents are smoking, lighting and electrical equipment, cooking, heating equipment, and fire setting. Cooking remains the top reason for residential fires, but the death caused by house fires is mainly because of smoking.

Residential fires damage property, cause injury, and in worse case scenarios, take away lives. Additionally, it causes emotional damage.

While processing your emotions, some things need to be dealt with. Once you have pulled yourself together, there are practical concerns like clearing debris from your property. House fire aftermath does not leave behind soot and smoke only, but a significant deal of damage. Clearing debris is essential if you think of residing in it again. This debris includes ashes, damaged electrical appliances, and burnt fixtures. 

There are urgent steps to take in the fire aftermath, and there are also gradual ones for the bigger damages. 

Immediately after the incident, after the fire department has cleared your home for safety, you can salvage whatever valuable possessions you can. You can secure your home by locking the doors. However, do not be tempted to remove debris from your home on your own, not unless you have enough experience or have training for it. After the fire, entering your home despite the clearance from the fire department would still be damaging to your health because of the soot and would cause injury because of the damages inside the house. You need all the help you can get, especially since, during this time, you are still trying to get your act together. 

In the case of debris removal right after a house fire, it would be best to hire professional help. By hiring professionals to do this task, you can pay attention to other more important things, like processing your insurance or recovering and starting over again with your family. Debris removal is a priority, though not your priority. It can be delegated to those who are trained to do it. 

In some cases, insurance companies compensate for the clearing of debris. To know this, you must prioritize calling your insurance agent or company so that they can help you with the restoration process and deal with everything else. You must inform them of all the necessary details and if potential hazards are emerging. They must know if they need to send their crew for damage control.

Before moving in again, be sure that debris clearance was prop done, or else it could cause potential health and safety setbacks due to harmful living conditions for you and your family. 

To ensure that everything is well taken care of, you must go for reputable cleaning services that you know for sure would be able to deal with the damage, no matter what extent. Do not try to do things on your own. The process of clearing debris relies on the cause of the house fire. In most cases, water damage is expected. The house must be dried out and toxic remains from smoke or burned materials must be cleared. Upon contacting the cleaning services, allow them to restore your home at a steady pace. Do not rush them and provide them adequate time. It takes a lot of time for the fire damage restoration company to return your property to its condition before the fire incident. Fire damage restoration companies deal with a lot of things, like repairing water and fire damage, removing the obnoxious smell of the smoke, intense cleaning of soot from furnishings, and a whole lot more. It looks and sounds effortless, but clearing every single bit of debris cannot be done by ordinary men.