Smoke damage: what to document when the fire was somewhere else

The first 24–72 hours

1. Go in only when it is safe, and keep the air in mind Safety

   If the fire was in your own home, wait until the fire department says it is safe to enter, as the U.S. Fire Administration advises. If the smoke came from a wildfire or a neighbouring property, follow the evacuation and air-quality notices for your area before you return. Once inside, keep visits short until the air has cleared, and wear a mask if the smell is strong.^[1]

2. Walk every room and write one line about the smell

   Before you open windows or run fans, walk through the whole house, including closets, the garage and the attic access, and write one line per room: the date, the time and how strong the smoke odour is in plain words such as “strong”, “faint” or “none”. Odour is the first evidence to fade, and a dated note per room is the only record of it.

3. Photograph the soot in each room before anything is touched or cleaned

   Photograph walls, ceilings, shelves, sills and fabrics in raking light from a flashlight held to one side, before anyone cleans. Touching spreads and compacts soot: conservators advise handling soot-affected objects as little as possible and not rubbing or wiping, which may ingrain the soot further. If you want to show residue on a hard surface that looks clean, use one light lifting dab with a clean white cloth on a shelf or window sill, never a rub, and never on textiles, paper, upholstery or anything valuable; photograph the cloth next to the spot. Leave the assessment of precious items to a conservator or a restoration professional and keep their written findings.^[6]

4. Photograph the HVAC filter and registers before you change anything

   Open the return grille, photograph the filter in place and then out of its slot, and photograph each supply register. If the smoke is still in the air outside, the EPA recommends upgrading to a filter rated MERV 13 or higher during smoky periods and closing the fresh-air intake or setting the system to recirculate. Photograph the old filter before it goes in the bin.^[2]

5. Find the fire’s official record

   A house fire has a fire incident report number from the fire department that responded, whether the fire was in your home or next door. A wildfire has an incident name and dates from the agency that responded to it. Write down which kind of event it was, the name or number, and who holds the record.^[1]

Smoke reaches rooms the fire never touched

The U.S. Fire Administration puts it plainly: things not damaged by the fire may still be ruined by smoke. Hot smoke rises, spreads across ceilings, is drawn into the return of the HVAC system and pushed out of every supply register, and settles into anything porous: carpet, curtains, bedding, clothing in closed closets, books and the inside of electronics. Your Affected Areas list is therefore different from the one in the fire damage guide. It includes every room, and each room gets an entry even if the entry says “no visible soot, faint odour”.^[1]

• List every room, hallway, closet, the garage, the attic and any crawl space as its own area, with a short identifier.
• For each area, record three things: the odour note, whether soot is visible in raking light and, on hard surfaces only, the result of a light cloth dab.
• Note which areas share ductwork with the room the fire was in, or with the side of the house that faced a wildfire; those are the rooms where smoke arrived through the registers.
• Record closed spaces separately: a closet that was shut during the fire can smell worse than the open room outside it.

What to photograph and record

Smoke evidence is faint by nature, so the photographs need contrast: a white cloth against a grey smear, a soot line against a lighter wall, a black filter against a new white one. The table lists each kind of evidence and how to make it visible in a photograph.

The white-cloth dab on hard surfaces as a documentation method

The cloth dab is not a laboratory test and does not identify what the residue is; it is a simple, repeatable way to show that a hard surface which looks clean is carrying something that transfers to a cloth. That is enough for documentation, and it is limited to hard, non-precious surfaces such as a shelf, a sill or a painted wall. Conservators warn that rubbing or wiping can ingrain soot further and advise handling affected objects as little as possible, so the movement is one light lifting dab, never a rub, and textiles, paper, artwork and anything valuable are photographed only and left to a professional. Use the same method in every room so the results can be compared: a fresh piece of clean white cloth, one light dab on a hand-sized area, then a photograph of the cloth next to the spot, with the room and the surface in the caption.^[6]

• Test a wall, the ceiling, a horizontal surface such as a shelf or sill, and a fabric surface in each room.
• Include at least one room far from the fire and one that was shut; the difference between them is part of the record.
• Do the test once before cleaning and once after, so the record shows the cleaning as a dated step rather than as a missing before.

House fire, wildfire or a neighbour’s fire: record the event, not an argument

The smoke in your home came from somewhere, and where it came from is an event fact with an official record. Your job is to write down which kind of event it was, when it happened, and who holds the record, and to leave it at that. The table lists the three common cases.

^[1][3]

For a wildfire, dated screenshots of the air-quality and evacuation notices for your area are the equivalent of an incident report number; save them the day you see them, because notices are replaced as conditions change.^[3]

The HVAC system: photograph the filter, then follow the EPA guidance

The HVAC system is both the route the smoke took and the most useful single piece of evidence. A filter that is black on the upstream side after a fire is a dated record of what passed through the house. Photograph the filter in its slot with the airflow arrow visible, then out of the slot against a plain background, with the date on a piece of paper in the frame. Only then replace it.

For smoke that is still in the outside air, the EPA’s wildfire smoke guidance says that upgrading to a filter rated MERV 13 or higher in the HVAC system is recommended during smoky periods, and that the fresh-air intake should be closed or the system set to recirculate. Record the date and the filter rating each time you change the filter during a smoky period, and keep the packaging or receipt.^[2]

• Photograph each supply register and the return grille from close enough to show the soot on the louvres.
• If a technician inspects or cleans the ducts, keep their written, dated report and any photographs they take inside the ductwork.

Inventory in groups, and receipts apart from estimates

A smoke inventory is long and repetitive, so group it: textiles and soft furnishings, electronics, and food and medicines, with walls and ceilings listed by room. One row per item or per bundle of like items, with the room identifier, a description, the dab result on hard surfaces where it applies, and the purchase date and price or “unknown”.

• Textiles: list curtains, upholstery, mattresses, bedding, rugs and clothing by room, with a photo per group in raking light; do not dab or wipe them.
• Electronics: list each item with its model and serial plate, whether it was switched on during the fire, and a close-up of soot in its vents.
• Food and medicines: photograph the shelves and write the list before anything is thrown out; once disposed, the photo is the only record.
• Cleaning: log cleaning-company invoices as paid receipts and cleaning quotes as estimates, in separate rows, each against the room it relates to.

Fire and smoke restoration contractors generally work to the ANSI/IICRC S700 standard for professional fire and smoke damage restoration. Ask for a written, dated scope of work before they start. Whether a cost is reimbursed is a policy question ClaimPrep does not answer; the invoice is still part of the record.

Keeping the evidence

Smoke evidence disappears with the first airing and the first clean, so the record you keep is mostly what you captured in the first two days. Keep the original photographs with their metadata and copy them off the phone. Keep the odour notes as one dated list that you add to weekly, because the smell returning on a humid day is itself a fact worth recording.

• Keep the fire’s official record, the incident report number or the wildfire incident name, in the same folder as your own timeline.
• Repeat the raking-light photos, the hard-surface dabs and the odour walk after cleaning, and file the results as a second dated set.

What to document

What your documentation report will contain

A ClaimPrep documentation report organises what you recorded into these sections. It records facts; it does not value your loss or interpret your policy.

• Claim Summary
• Property Details
• Damage Summary
• Timeline of Events
• Affected Areas
• Detailed Documentation
• Mitigation Actions
• Documented Details
• Additional Documentation
• Photo Documentation

See a sample documentation report (a fictional example) or read how ClaimPrep works.

Who to contact

The fire department that responded, for a house fire or a neighbouring fire

They hold the fire incident report number and can tell you when it is safe to enter; ask for the number and the investigator’s name.^[1]

The agency that responded to the wildfire

They hold the incident name and dates; your local emergency management office publishes the evacuation and air-quality notices for your address.

Your insurance company or agent

They receive notice of the loss and explain their own process; note the date, the time and the name of the person you spoke to.

Florida DFS Insurance Consumer Helpline, 1-877-MY-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236), out of state (850) 413-3089

State consumer help for insurance questions, available 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday; have your company name, policy number and agent name ready.^[4]

A fire and smoke restoration contractor

They clean and deodorise; ask for a written, dated scope of work and keep every invoice. Such contractors generally follow the ANSI/IICRC S700 standard for fire and smoke damage restoration.

Common documentation mistakes

Listing only the room that burned as the affected area

List every room with its own odour note and raking-light photos; smoke damage is defined by where the smoke went, not where the fire was.

Wiping or rubbing surfaces before they are photographed

Photograph in raking light first and keep hands off; rubbing spreads soot and can ingrain it, and the first cleaning removes the evidence.

Throwing the old HVAC filter away and then trying to describe it

Photograph the filter in its slot and out of it, with the date in the frame, before you replace it.

Describing where the smoke came from as an argument rather than a fact

Write the event, the date and who holds the official record, and leave the rest to the people whose job that is.

Throwing out pantry food and medicines without a photo

Photograph the shelves and write the list first; disposal can wait an hour.

Questions