How Should We Respond To Fire Damage At Our Great Falls Hotel?

9/17/2020 (Permalink)

Preparing for a fire damage incident before it happens is an excellent way to ensure you can respond correctly.

SERVPRO Can Help You Prepare an Emergency READY Profile Plan for Your Business Ensuring Immediate Bounce Back After an Incident

Hospitality facilities have a greater risk of damage from fires because of various activities that happen there, like the preparation of meals. The large number of people that patronize these facilities also increases the risk in different ways. When there is an incident at your Great Falls premises, you may agonize whether the type of response you choose is appropriate to address any damages and other issues that arise after an incident. SERVPRO can help you explore the likely causes of fire at your facility or offer restoration services when an incident occurs.

What are the usual causes of fire damage in Great Falls hotels?
    •    Faulty heating and cooling systems
    •    Deep fryers and other cooking equipment
    •    Electrical faults
    •    Careless or malicious guests
    •    Laundry equipment

Fires in Great Falls can develop at any time in your facility since there are factors that you cannot control while others remain hidden until they spark a fire. For instance, you have no way of knowing which guests are careless enough to throw cigarette butts on flammable materials or start fires intentionally. On the other hand, lint build-up in laundry dryers, or deterioration of electricity cables, are some of the few unseen problems that can lead to serious fires.

When preparing the Emergency READY Profile Plan (ERP), our SERVPRO technicians can help identify issues that conceal fire hazards. We perform a full assessment of your facility at no cost. During the checks, we can help you identify issues such as wrong material types for exhauster vents in laundry dryers. For example, if your unit has a silver or white vinyl duct hose, we recommend replacement with a metal one since the vinyl one ignites easily.

How can the ERP help bad behavior from guests?
Since spying on your guests is not practical for legal and ethical reasons, you need other ways to address problems in case of bad behavior from your guests. One way the readiness plan can help is by ensuring you detect fires at the earliest stages. Our SERVPRO technicians check whether you have enough smoke detectors in the facility. The standard requirement is to have a detector in each room and along the hallways in every level of the building.

Apart from checking whether the units are installed, we also go a step further to help you ensure they work when the need arises. We confirm whether you check the batteries monthly and whether you replace alkaline or lead batteries at least once every year and the detectors once a decade. Preventive maintenance, such as vacuuming the detectors bi-annually, is also crucial.  Taking such steps ensures quick detection of fires, and when combined with effective fire suppression mechanisms, you can minimize the damage likely to result from actions by your guests.

Does an ERP Plan help after a fire incident happens?
Although the intensity of the fire is the main factor that determines the outcome of an incident, how you conduct the renovation processes can prevent secondary issues or lead to worse outcomes. The emergency ready profile helps by:
    •    Collecting critical information needed to address the emergency
    •    Identifying the chain of command  
    •    Establishing the professional restorer to call after an incident
    •    Providing crucial information such as priority areas and location of power mains

Fast action is the best way to respond to fire damage because even after the flames die down, the property keeps deteriorating. If the incident happens when managerial or other members of staff with authority are away from the premises, it might not be clear what actions are necessary, thus creating the opportunity for secondary damages to develop.  The SERVPRO mobile app identifies the restorer to call and the actions members of staff are expected to take.

Notifying SERVPRO in time allows us to reach the loss site early and thus take preventive steps. For instance, we can help save soiled carpets, beddings, and other fabric materials from severe staining. We can also help save metal or chrome finished accessories such as doorknobs from corrosion by soot and other smoke residues through pre-cleaning and applying protective oil film. When a faster response helps save your items, there are more advantages than just lowered costs. For instance, it can lead to a faster conclusion of the restoration process since there is no need to remove and replace the materials saved from secondary damage.

Preparing for a fire damage incident before it happens is an excellent way to ensure you can respond correctly. Call SERVPRO of Helena & Great Falls at (406) 458-6008 to help prepare a readiness plan. We’re Faster to Any Size Disaster.