Fire Damage and Water Damage: How One Leads to the Other

7/18/2022 (Permalink)

Three Main Contributors to Fire and Water Damage

When business owners consider fire damage, they often think of charred structures and melted computer housings. Still, very few consider the extensive amount of water damage that can occur in fire rescue. To help you understand why such loss is inevitable, it is essential to review the main three contributors to such damage.

1. Rescue Efforts
2. Heat
3. Suppression Systems
   
   

Rescue Efforts

Most water damage occurs as a result of rescue efforts. Firefighters use large, high volume, high-pressure hoses to dose the flames and extinguish the blaze. While some water likely dissipates from the excessive heat, most of it will remain on the floor, ceilings, walls, and cavities of the building, which means that you may want to hire a Theatre District, MA, fire restoration company to help mitigate further loss.

Heat

While it may seem counter-intuitive, heat can also lead to water and fire damage. Extreme temperatures can lead to bursts and broken pipes, which inevitably leads to significant flooding within the property. Therefore, it is often necessary to turn off the water supply to a building following a fire to reduce the risk of water loss.

Suppression Systems

Last, a fire hose and broken pipes are not the only contributors to excessive water buildup in a fire-damaged property. Often, the safety measures that are put in place, like a fire suppression system, can result in flooding as well. While many systems rely on foam or other chemicals, some systems are purely water-based. Also, while there are systems that can coordinate water release to only certain places in the building, other systems do not have such controls, which means that when one sprinkler is set off, all of them go off.
Water and fire damage often appear together after a blaze. However, it is necessary to understand that while such damage is frustrating, it is an essential part of rescue efforts, without which you may not have a commercial facility at all.