Fire Restoration: Advice for Cleaning Up After a Fire

Surviving a fire is a life changing event. Additional to the emotional pain of dealing with the conclusion of a fire, you also have to work through with the physical damage left behind. Once the firefighters have put out the fire and everyone is safe, it's time to begin thinking about fire mitigation.

Starting step is to contact your insurance company, recommends smoke damage knoxville. They will send out an adjuster to assess the damage and analyze what will be covered by your policy. Next you have a list of what needs to be completed, you can initiate creating a game plan for cleaning and repairing your home.

Cleaning Up Smoke and Soot Damage

According to fire damage restoration nashville, one of the most critical aspects of fire renovation is cleaning up smoke and soot mess. These specks are very fine and can get through surfaces like walls, ceilings, and floors. They can also get into your HVAC system and spread throughout your home, causing further problems.

To sanitize smoke and soot damage, you need to use special cleaners and devices. It's best to leave this job to the professionals because they have the experience and expertise necessary to do it safely and efficiently. Moveover, if you're on a economical budget, there are some things you can do yourself.

To start, open all the windows and doors to air out your home. Then, using a sponge or soft cloth, wipe down all surfaces with plain water. You can also use a mild detergent or soap if needed. Be sure to switch your sponge or cloth often because they will quickly become filled with soot.

Once you've cleaned all the surfaces in your home, you need to vacuum all the carpets, upholstered furniture, drapes, and blinds. Be sure to use a vacuum with HEPA filters because they will trap the soot contaminants rather than just moving them around. If you don't have a HEPA equipment, you can rent one from most hardware stores.

Fixing Water Damage from Firefighting Efforts

Another frequent issue after a fire is water damage from firefighting efforts. This water can seep into walls, floors, and other regions of your home, causing mold and mildew growth if not properly cleaned up.

To mitigate water damage, start by taking out any standing water using a wet/dry vacuum or mop and bucket. Next, use fans or dehumidifiers to dehumidify the region as much as possible. Once everything is dry, you'll need to sanitize all surfaces with disinfectant to prevent mold growth.

In Conclusion

According to fire damage restoration knoxville tn, recovering from the damage of a fire is never easy but knowing what needs to be checked off can help make the process less overwhelming. Start by contacting your insurance company then begin cleaning up smoke and soot damage. Remember to use special cleaners and equipment. Don't forget to also address any water damage from firefighting efforts by removing standing water then dehumidifying the area completely before disinfecting all surfaces. Following these tips will assist in get your home back to the way it was as quickly as possible after a fire!

written by
Ian Blair Hamilton AlkaWay Founder

Is It True? Are There Really Pharmaceuticals in our Drinking Water?

WATER FILTRATION 5 min read

When the World Health Organisation decides to commit to a study on pharmaceuticals in our water, you know there`s a reason.

Here`s an excerpt from the study.

Pharmaceuticals are synthetic or natural chemicals that can be found in prescription medicines, over-the-counter therapeutic drugs and veterinary drugs. Pharmaceuticals contain active ingredients that have been designed to have pharmacological effects and confer significant benefits to society. The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment and the water cycle at trace levels (in the range of nanograms to low micrograms per litre) has been widely discussed and published in literature in the past decade. The increase in detection is largely attributable to the advances in analytical techniques and instrumentation. Many surveys and studies have confirmed the presence of pharmaceuticals in municipal wastewater and effluents, and these have been identified as a major source of pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

So yes, it is in our water. It comes from many sources, but one that surprised me was the simple act of taking a dip in a river. It appears that if we are ón meds`, then we are also sweating them out. This med-laden sweat ends up in the water.

Activated carbon is the simplest way to reduce pharmaceuticals in your home water. No, we can`t tell you exactly how much of every pharmaceutical they will remove, but the WHO report recommends their use.

(In my filter, I use catalytic carbon – around 8 x more effective than common activated carbon.)

Carbon, the report says, can achieve high removal of pharmaceutical target compounds, especially hydrophobic compounds. As with all contaminants, removal efficacy is a function of contact time, organic loading, chemical structure, solubility and carbon type (Ternes et al., 2002; Yoon Y. et al., 2003; Snyder et al., 2006) And there are some that are still resistant, such as: Iopromide, ibuprofen, meprobamate, sulfamethoxazole and diclofenac . (Khiari, 2007).

Here`s my take on this issue.

1. It`s a good thing we know about the problem.

2. The amounts of pharmaceuticals in our drinking water and their effects on us will relate – obviously – to how much tap water we drink.

3. We have had people criticising us about being alarmist to sell water filters.
I understand where they are coming from. The world has two kinds of people: those who believe they are taking in contaminants in a therapeutically negative amount, and those who simply choose not to believe it despite the evidence.

4. I am inspired by Erin Brockovitch more than by the Managing Director of Monsanto. Erin understood that we are all living on a polluted planet. She acted to change her region, and she succeeded.

We absorb contaminants through the plastics we use for almost everything, through the air, through our water, our food, through our clothes, even through our mattress as we sleep!

A report I read some years ago concluded that an average US female had a minimum of 600 contaminants in the body.

So yes, pharmaceuticals in your water are still what our experts label as low dose. But we all know that`s not all, is it? There`s the carcinogenic chlorine, its nasty co-carcinogen chloramine, there`s brain affecting fluoride, lead from old pipes…. and that`s just the water!

I prefer to see myself as a pragmatist than an alarmist and what I do with the lives of myself and my family matters first to me. In my position I read hundreds of reports on adverse water quality.. but I don`t snasties.ee it as the total picture. I see it as a factor I can affect – something I can consciously subtract from the daily list of contaminants I have unthinkingly absorbed and stored. By doing so I`m reducing the possibility of a tipping point event where my body metabolism simply gives up due to the overload of `safe`doses of hundreds of nasties.

Here`s my personal bottom line. What`s yours?
If indeed we do already have hundreds of different contaminants in our cells, my awareness gives me the chance to begin dismantling this growing threat to my health, even if I have to do it one by one.

I can`t dismiss the obvious observation that as a nation we all seem fat.
And yet we are also also seeing stranger symptoms. Manboobs. Sterility. Ongoing seemingly infinitely variable undiagnosable symptoms. As I see it, it`s very likely that these unheard-of symptoms may relate to a toxic soup of contaminants from all of the sources I mentioned earlier. Fat may simply be inflammation. medically speaking, it`s called chronic low level inflammation. Hmm. that word again. “Low level”.

I can`t remove all of them..
well, I may be able to – but it`d be a concerted and painful detoxification process… but I do have the power in my own hands to identify their source, and do whatever it takes to remove them from my life.

Just a water Filter Salesman?

To answer my critics who say I`m just trying to sell you a water filter.. yes, they are right.

But is there anyone else who has alerted you to the problem and handed you a solution? No.

If a doctor walked up to you on the street and said I am a doctor and I can tell you have …. disease, would you judge him for it?

I`m not a doctor. I`ve only spent the last 18 years studying our drinking water and supplying solutions.

So you make the call.
Am I worth listening to? Or am I just trying to sell you something? Or both?

I am the inventor of what I believe is the most advanced simple water filter on the market. We`ve broken the rules of the industry – one that (I have observed) prefers to tell the customer as little as possible about how well their products really work.

I have taken the steps to test its capability for the whole of its life: something I`ve never seen done before for any water filter. I`ve had it approved by the EU safety committee. I`ve run it through an exhaustive University lab. I`ve sourced every filter media from USA rather than the far east. I am proud of what I and my team have achieved in helping over 20,000 people, and receiving their letters of gratitude.
Learn more about my invention, the UltraStream here
Download the WHO report on pharmaceuticals in our water here

Ian Blair Hamilton
Founder
AlkaWay

Mortgage Rate Programs

Mortgage loans are financial loans taken for real estate properties that the borrower has to repay with interest within a fixed period of time. A mortgage loan requires some sort of security for the lender. This security is called the collateral and in most cases, it is the real estate property itself for which the mortgage loan has been taken. Since the property itself is kept as the collateral, no further security is needed.

The person who lends the mortgage loan is called the mortgagee, while the person who borrows the loan is called the mortgagor. The mortgagee and mortgagor are bound by the mortgage loan agreement. The agreement entitles the mortgagor to receive a financial loan from the mortgagee. The promissory note in the agreement secures the mortgagee, which entitles them to the collateral and a promise made by the mortgagor to repay the mortgage loan in due time. In the USA, the typical period for a mortgage loan may be 10, 15, 20 or 30 years.  Go here!

There are two fundamental types of mortgage loans in the USA – fixed-rate mortgages and adjustable-rate mortgages. Fixed-rate mortgages have interest rates that are locked for the life of the mortgage, while adjustable-rate mortgages have interest rates that may go up or down according to some market index. Hence, fixed-rate mortgages provide security to the mortgagor, while adjustable-rate mortgages provide security to the mortgagee. If there are dues on monthly payments, then they are added together and constitute a balloon mortgage loan.

The process of buying a loan is called originating the loan. This is done between the mortgagor and the mortgagee, sometimes involving a mortgage broker. The broker charges a commission on every loan originated, which is collected from either the mortgagor or the mortgagee. A broker’s involvement increases the cost of the entire mortgage. Mortgage Rates!

Mortgage loans below 80% of the entire property value need added security for the mortgagee. This is done in the form of insurance policies, called mortgage insurance. The premiums of mortgage insurance policies are passed on to the borrower in their monthly payments. However, if the mortgagor makes at least 20% of the down payment, then the mortgage insurance may be waived.

In the US, there are several types of mortgages available. The most important mortgages are those which are originated by the Federal Housing Administration. These very popular loans are called Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae loans. Fannie Mae mortgages are the most popular types of mortgage loans in the USA.  Go here!