Fire and smoke damage in Ottawa keeps working long after the fire is out. Acidic soot etches glass, chrome, appliance finishes and aluminum within days; smoke odour drives into porous materials and returns every time humidity rises; and firefighting water becomes a mould problem within 48 hours if it is not extracted and dried. The first 24 to 72 hours decide how much is salvageable.
Our IICRC FSRT-certified crews stabilize the property first — emergency board-up and tarping to keep weather and trespassers out — then extract firefighting water, remove soot by residue type, HEPA-filter the air, and deodourize with thermal fogging or hydroxyl generation rather than masking scent.
We respond across Ottawa and the National Capital Region: Centretown, the Glebe, Westboro, Alta Vista, Sandy Hill, Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Gloucester and Manotick.
Our industry-standard protocol
- 1
Emergency make-safe, board-up & tarping
Openings secured, roofs tarped and the structure weather-tight, usually the same day the fire service releases the scene.
- 2
Water extraction & drying
Firefighting water is extracted and the structure dried before it becomes a secondary mould loss — the step most often skipped on fire files.
- 3
Soot & residue assessment
Dry (protein, wood, paper), wet (plastics, synthetics), and fuel-oil puffback residues each need different chemistry and technique. We test surfaces before cleaning them.
- 4
Cleaning & corrosion control
HEPA vacuuming, dry chem-sponge cleaning, wet cleaning and immersion for salvageable contents, plus corrosion inhibitors on metals and electronics.
- 5
Deodourization & verification
Source removal first, then thermal fogging, hydroxyl or ozone treatment and sealing where warranted, verified by occupied-space smell testing. Scope ends at mitigation — we do not rebuild.
What's included
- ✓ 24/7 emergency board-up and roof tarping
- ✓ Kitchen and grease-fire soot cleanup
- ✓ Furnace and oil puffback residue removal
- ✓ Structure-fire soot and char mitigation
- ✓ Firefighting water extraction and drying
- ✓ Wildfire smoke intrusion and HVAC filtration
- ✓ Smoke odour elimination — thermal fog and hydroxyl
- ✓ Contents cleaning, inventory and pack-out coordination
- ✓ Corrosion control for metals and electronics
- ✓ Air quality restoration with HEPA scrubbers
- ✓ Itemized documentation for your own insurance submission
- ✓ We do not rebuild — mitigation and remediation only
Why the first 72 hours matter most
Soot is acidic. Left in place, it permanently etches glass and mirrors within days, pits chrome and aluminum, discolours grout and vinyl, and corrodes electronics and appliance circuit boards. Smoke odour meanwhile migrates into wall cavities and HVAC systems and becomes progressively harder to eliminate. Fast stabilization is the single biggest factor in how much of an Ottawa home survives a fire.
Furnace puffbacks — an Ottawa winter specialty
Oil-fired and older gas furnaces can misfire and discharge oily black soot through the entire duct system in seconds. Puffback residue is greasy, smears under conventional cleaning, and is present in every room the ductwork serves — including rooms that look untouched. It requires solvent-based cleaning, full duct assessment and deodourization, not surface wiping. If you have black film on walls near registers after a heating-season bang from the mechanical room, treat it as a puffback.
How the insurance side works
Clients pay us directly for mitigation, so make-safe and cleaning start on your authorization rather than after adjuster approval. You receive an itemized scope, phase photographs, contents inventory and a completion report you submit to your insurer for your own reimbursement. Restoration financing through our partners can bridge the cost while the claim is reviewed. Reconstruction — framing, finishes and rebuilding — is handled by your own contractor; our file hands them a clean, dry, deodourized structure.
Where we respond
Crews dispatched 24/7 across Eastern Ontario, including:
Instant cost estimate
Preliminary CAD range in under a minute. A free on-site inspection confirms the scope, and financing is available while your claim is reviewed.
Estimated mitigation range
$2,848 – $4,188
Mitigation and remediation only — we do not quote or perform reconstruction.
Frequently asked questions
How fast can you respond to fire damage in Ottawa?
24/7/365, typically inside 90 minutes to the Ottawa core once the fire service has released the scene. Emergency board-up and tarping are usually completed the same day.
Can smoke odour really be removed permanently?
Yes, when the source is removed rather than masked. That means removing unsalvageable porous materials, cleaning every affected surface including inside wall cavities and ductwork where needed, then treating the space with thermal fogging or hydroxyl generation and sealing where warranted.
My Ottawa house had a small kitchen fire — do I really need a professional?
Even small fires distribute acidic soot far beyond the visible area and push odour into porous materials and ductwork. Consumer cleaners typically smear soot and set staining permanently. A scoped professional cleaning usually costs far less than replacing etched glass, corroded appliances and permanently odourized contents.
What about the water the fire department used?
We extract and dry it as part of the same file. Untreated firefighting water becomes a mould loss within 24 to 48 hours, which is why our fire crews carry extraction and LGR drying equipment on every dispatch.
Do you rebuild after fire damage in Ottawa?
No. We stabilize, clean, deodourize, dry and document. Reconstruction is arranged separately by you, and our documentation gives your builder a verified starting point.