Commercial Fire Damage: What to Do in the First 60 Minutes After a Fire
When a fire occurs in a commercial building, the first 60 minutes are about people first and property second.
Whether the fire affects an office, school, healthcare facility, apartment complex, warehouse, retail property, church, restaurant, or industrial facility, the decisions made immediately afterward can affect safety, building security, business interruption, contents, and the eventual restoration process.
Bulldog Restoration provides commercial fire damage restoration throughout Oklahoma, including smoke and soot cleanup, contents restoration, emergency property stabilization, structural cleaning, repairs, and reconstruction.
If a fire is active or suspected, evacuate the building, call 911, and follow the instructions of the fire department and other emergency authorities.
Do not re-enter a fire-damaged structure until the appropriate authorities have determined that access is permitted.
Minutes 0–10: Protect People First
During the first few minutes of a commercial fire, the building isn’t the priority.
People are.
Follow your property’s emergency evacuation procedures and move occupants to the designated safe location.
Do not attempt to retrieve computers, records, inventory, equipment, or personal belongings from an unsafe building.
Commercial fires can create hazards beyond visible flames, including:
● Smoke and combustion products
● Reduced visibility
● Electrical hazards
● Structural instability
● Falling ceiling materials
● Hot surfaces
● Damaged utilities
● Contaminated debris
● Hidden fire extension
Even after the visible flames are extinguished, dangerous conditions may remain.
Never re-enter simply because the fire appears to be out.
Minutes 10–20: Account for People and Follow Emergency Instructions
Once occupants are outside, follow the facility’s established procedures for accounting for employees, tenants, students, patients, visitors, or other occupants.
Provide emergency responders with important building information when requested.
Depending on the property, that may include:
● Missing or unaccounted-for occupants
● Hazardous materials
● Utility locations
● Fire-suppression systems
● Mechanical rooms
● Electrical equipment
● Building access points
● Areas containing sensitive or valuable contents
At this stage, the fire department and emergency personnel control the scene.
Restoration activities should never interfere with emergency operations or a fire investigation.
Minutes 20–30: Begin Making the Necessary Notifications
Once immediate life-safety responsibilities have been addressed, appropriate facility representatives can begin the notification process.
Depending on the organization, that may include:
● Property ownership
● Facility management
● Property management
● Risk management
● Corporate leadership
● Insurance representatives
● Security personnel
● Maintenance personnel
● Commercial restoration professionals
Larger organizations should have these contacts documented before an emergency occurs.
A major fire at 2:00 a.m. isn’t the time to begin figuring out who can authorize emergency stabilization or restoration work.
Minutes 30–40: Contact a Commercial Fire Damage Restoration Company
Once the emergency is under control, contacting an experienced commercial fire restoration contractor allows recovery planning to begin.
Bulldog Restoration provides 24/7 commercial fire damage restoration for businesses and facilities throughout Oklahoma.
Depending on the loss, services may include:
● Emergency property stabilization
● Board-up and temporary protection
● Fire damage cleanup
● Smoke damage assessment
● Smoke and soot removal
● Commercial deodorization
● Air filtration and smoke remediation
● Contents evaluation
● Contents cleaning
● Pack-out and inventory
● Structural cleaning
● Debris removal
● Selective demolition
● Structural repairs
● Reconstruction
● Documentation
● Coordination with property owners, managers, and insurance professionals
For a complete overview of these services, visit Bulldog Restoration’s Commercial Fire Damage Restoration page (https://www.405dryfast.com/commerical-fire-damage-restoration).
Important: restoration personnel should not enter restricted areas or begin restoration work until appropriate access has been permitted.
Once access is available, the restoration team can begin evaluating the property and developing a recovery strategy.
Minutes 40–50: Document the Damage When Access Is Permitted
Commercial fire losses can become complicated restoration and insurance projects.
Good documentation matters.
When authorities have permitted access and conditions are safe, photographs and video can help document:
● Areas directly affected by fire
● Smoke migration
● Soot deposits
● Damaged ceilings and walls
● Flooring
● Equipment
● Furniture
● Inventory
● Documents
● Building contents
● Areas affected by firefighting activities
Avoid unnecessarily disturbing damaged materials or throwing away contents before they have been properly evaluated and documented unless safety or other conditions require immediate removal.
The restoration contractor can provide additional documentation as cleanup and recovery progress.
Minutes 50–60: Begin Planning Stabilization and Recovery
After the emergency phase, attention begins shifting toward protecting the property and determining what can be cleaned, restored, repaired, or saved.
A commercial building may require immediate stabilization to prevent additional damage or unauthorized entry.
Depending on the conditions, that may involve:
● Securing building openings
● Emergency board-up
● Temporary roof protection
● Isolating affected areas
● Protecting unaffected portions of the property
● Relocating salvageable contents
● Establishing controlled work areas
● Beginning smoke and soot assessment
This is also when important operational questions begin:
Which portions of the facility can remain operational?
Which areas need to remain isolated?
What contents may be salvageable?
How far did smoke and soot travel?
What building materials can be cleaned?
What requires replacement?
What needs to happen before normal operations can resume?
These questions become part of the commercial fire restoration plan.
Fire Damage Can Extend Far Beyond the Burned Area
One of the biggest misconceptions following a commercial fire is that damage exists only where flames were present.
Smoke can travel throughout a building.
Soot and other fire residues may settle on surfaces far away from the original fire area and can affect adjoining rooms, corridors, equipment, furnishings, storage areas, and contents.
Different materials can also produce different residues when burned.
That’s why professional fire restoration involves much more than removing visibly burned materials.
The property may need to be evaluated for the broader effects of:
Fire • Smoke • Soot • Odor • Heat • Firefighting Operations
Smoke and Soot Require the Proper Cleaning Approach
Soot isn’t simply ordinary dust.
Fire residues can vary considerably depending upon the materials involved and conditions of the fire.
A cleaning method appropriate for one type of surface or residue may not be appropriate for another.
Improper cleaning can sometimes spread residues or make certain staining more difficult to address.
Professional fire restoration involves evaluating affected materials and selecting cleaning methods appropriate for the conditions encountered.
Don’t Automatically Turn the HVAC System Back On
Following a commercial fire, avoid unnecessarily operating building systems that could potentially move smoke, soot, or odors into additional areas until they have been appropriately evaluated.
HVAC systems can be especially important in large commercial facilities because air movement may affect areas well beyond the immediate fire location.
Facility personnel should follow the instructions of emergency authorities and qualified professionals regarding operation of building systems after a fire.
Contents Can Represent a Major Portion of a Commercial Fire Loss
For many businesses and organizations, what’s inside the building can be just as important as the structure.
A commercial fire may affect:
● Computers and electronics
● Business records
● Inventory
● Medical equipment
● Educational materials
● Furniture
● Merchandise
● Machinery
● Documents
● Tenant property
● Specialty equipment
Not every smoke-affected item automatically needs to be discarded.
Depending on the item, extent of damage, safety considerations, economics, and restoration potential, some contents may be candidates for professional cleaning or restoration.
When appropriate, a contents pack-out may allow affected items to be documented, inventoried, removed from the damaged environment, processed, and stored while structural restoration takes place.
Business Continuity Should Be Part of Commercial Fire Restoration
For a business, a fire creates two major problems:
Property damage and operational disruption.
A commercial restoration strategy should therefore consider whether unaffected portions of the facility can safely remain operational while damaged areas are isolated and restored.
This can be particularly important for:
● Hospitals and healthcare facilities
● Schools
● Apartment and multifamily communities
● Warehouses
● Office buildings
● Retail properties
● Churches
● Industrial facilities
● Other commercial operations
The goal isn’t simply to clean a building.
The objective is to establish an organized path from:
Emergency → Stabilization → Cleanup → Restoration → Reopening
Firefighting Can Also Create a Significant Water Loss
Fire damage isn’t always the only restoration issue after a commercial fire.
Fire-suppression systems and firefighting operations can leave substantial amounts of water inside a structure.
That can create a complex loss involving:
Fire damage
Smoke damage
Soot contamination
Water damage
Wet contents
Saturated structural materials
Water can migrate underneath flooring, into walls, insulation, ceilings, and other building assemblies.
When substantial water is present, extraction and structural drying may need to become part of the overall fire-restoration plan.
Learn more about Bulldog Restoration’s Commercial Water Damage Restoration services in Oklahoma City (https://www.405dryfast.com/commercial-water-damage-restoration-okc).
When Firefighting Water Creates a Large-Loss Restoration Project
Some commercial fires can create extensive secondary water damage.
A major sprinkler-system discharge or firefighting operation can affect multiple rooms, large portions of a facility, or multiple floors.
When that happens, the restoration project may require greater extraction capacity, commercial drying equipment, moisture mapping, temporary power, and coordinated project management.
For significant commercial water losses, see Bulldog Restoration’s Large-Loss Water Damage Restoration services in Oklahoma (https://www.405dryfast.com/large-loss-water-damage-restoration-okc).
This is especially relevant for large facilities such as hospitals, schools, warehouses, apartment properties, multi-story buildings, and other commercial structures where water can migrate well beyond the immediate fire area.
Prepare a Commercial Fire Response Plan Before You Need One
The best time to determine what your organization will do after a fire is before the fire happens.
Facility managers and property owners should consider maintaining an emergency information package containing:
● Emergency contacts
● Property ownership contacts
● Insurance information
● Utility information
● Building plans when available
● Fire-suppression information
● After-hours access procedures
● Restoration contractor information
● Security contacts
● Key facility personnel
● Vendor authorization procedures
Schools, healthcare facilities, apartment communities, warehouses, and other large properties may also benefit from assigning emergency responsibilities to specific personnel ahead of time.
Preparation can eliminate valuable hours of confusion following a major commercial loss.
24/7 Commercial Fire Damage Restoration Throughout Oklahoma
A commercial fire can affect far more than the physical building.
It can disrupt employees, customers, tenants, students, patients, inventory, equipment, operations, and revenue.
Bulldog Restoration provides professional commercial fire damage restoration, smoke and soot cleanup, contents restoration, property stabilization, structural cleaning, repairs, and reconstruction throughout Oklahoma.
Our objective is to help property owners, facility managers, and other decision-makers move from the emergency phase into an organized restoration process while protecting salvageable property and reducing unnecessary disruption whenever conditions allow.
For more information about Bulldog’s complete commercial fire restoration capabilities, visit our Commercial Fire Damage Restoration page (https://www.405dryfast.com/commerical-fire-damage-restoration).
Commercial Fire Emergency?
First, protect people, call 911, and follow the instructions of the fire department and emergency authorities.
Once emergency operations permit restoration planning to begin:
Call Bulldog Restoration — 405-990-8481
24/7 Emergency Response
Bulldog Restoration
Local Since 1996
Oklahoma City • Edmond • Commercial Restoration Throughout Oklahoma