Fire Cleanup 101: Always Throw Away These Three Items When Damaged by a Fire

2/26/2022 (Permalink)

After a fire, you should throw away any damaged food, medicine, or cosmetics.

Items To Throw Away After a Fire

A house fire is a devastating experience that everyone hopes to avoid. However, if a fire does occur in your home in Hammond, WI, you likely are wondering what items can be restored by a fire cleanup company and what items you will need to throw away. Fortunately, many of your most valuable possessions and important documents can be repaired from damage caused by fire and smoke. However, there are three items that you should always discard if they have been anywhere near the fire.

Food

All food items that have apparent fire damage are unfit for human consumption. If the fire happened in another part of the house, there might be a chance that your food was unaffected. However, you will need to observe your food because high temperatures and power outages can also be an issue. Here are some signs that you need to throw away your food items:

• Rusted or bulging cans
• Charred food
• Smoky smell inside the refrigerator
• Food in the freezer no longer frozen
• A foul smell before or while cooking
  
  

Medicine

If you have any medicine in your home, you will need to consider if it is at all possible it came into contact with high heat. If so, immediately throw it out! Medicines that are exposed to temperatures in the mid-80s or higher can lose their effectiveness. Also, some types of medicine can cause serious damage to your organs if they’ve experienced any kind of decay.

Cosmetics

Hazardous chemicals can easily make their way into any cosmetics that you may have, and extreme heat can even completely alter their chemical composition. Do not apply any makeups or hygiene products that have signs of either fire damage or soot stains to your skin to avoid irritation.

While you may want to preserve whatever you can after a fire, you’re better off making the decision to throw away any damaged food, medicines, or cosmetics to avoid effects that could impact on your health!