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 Their Orange County home survived the Santiago Fire but required a major cleanup.
Our home survived the October wildfires. We're still celebrating and thanking the firefighters who set the backfires that saved our funky Modjeska Canyon dwelling.
But those obliging flames burned just yards from our property, and the winds had blown hard for days before the Santiago Fire. Hardly bad news by comparison - and nobody's complaining.
Still, when we finally returned home after being evacuated for 10 days, we found ashes, dirt, dust, downed trees, debris and the overwhelming smell of smoke. We’d stayed 10 nights with friends. My wife was taking antibiotics for a reaction to what the doctor called “particulate matter.”
And did I mention the stink from the freezer, which had the power off for several days, and that the reek of defrosted filets and melted ice cream was so bad we could hardly enter the kitchen? In between feeling joy and relief that our home was still standing, how would we clean up the incredible mess and be able to move back in?
Insurance counts
Living in a rural, forested area means having trouble finding insurance coverage at all. Most neighbors are on California's “Fair Plan,” the state-organized insurance pool, so when the fires began, I debated notifying my agent at all. But I figured that warning him suggested the behavior of a good customer so my insurer, Foremost (a branch of Farmers), hopefully wouldn't cancel us later. “You're covered. Take digital photos,” advised the agent, who said he knew about the fires.
I took pictures of everything, then continued packing up both cars with photo albums, files and my son's favorite toys.
The cleanup begins
Fast-forward past evacuation orders, days of anxiety and finally seeing our house on the television news, untouched. Now it was the helpful Foremost adjuster who drove out to take pictures and get a whiff of the place. He got things rolling with a local restoration outfit.
First to arrive from the ServiceMaster team - the same morning my son and I drove in to unpack and repatriate the cats - was the filter guy.
It's big and loud, he said, but effective: Meet the DefendAir HEPA 500. I paid our comparatively modest deductible ($500), and with the industry-standard air scrubber doing its loud work in the background, I scheduled visits with the rest of the restoration services pros: a 10-person crew of interior wipers, moppers and sweepers who left our house cleaner than before the fire. We had help from duct-cleaning fellows whose giant vacuums (think “Ghostbusters”) sucked out nasty stuff in our AC/heating system. Another guy showed up to collect linens, blankets and clothing, “anything that absorbs odors,” he said, though when it became clear that dry cleaning was not covered by our insurance policy, I thanked him and kept unpacking and congratulating myself on our luck.
A second cleaning duo dealt with the small outbuilding we use as a playroom and guest quarters, in which ash blew through an open vent. It looked like a horror movie crypt, and the men dusted and vacuumed for hours.
I signed an inventory sheet for drapery dry cleaning, later disallowed by Foremost, which covered cleaning the “structure only” and not the contents. The ServiceMaster staff was overly busy with all the fire-related work. The duct cleaners had driven here from Arizona and were living in a motel. I never even saw the high-pressure power sprayers. They arrived as my wife left for her first full day back at work. I'd begged them on the phone to please turn down the pressure, fearing our peeling paint job couldn't take it. Their gentle touch worked.
We arranged to go out of town for Veteran's Day weekend in mid-November so a final restoration expert could ozone and fog the place, a knockout punch we were promised would kill any odors that lingered. ServiceMaster left a Realtor-style house key lockbox. When we returned from our much-needed weekend away, our house did not smell at all, not even the fridge. Also gone was the HEPA 500 filter. After a week of yelling over its efficient roar, I almost missed it. H&O
Contributing writer Andrew Tonkovich and his family are back safe, happy and very clean in their Orange County home after evacuating during the Santiago Fire. When he’s not facilitating a monthly book club in his canyon neighborhood, Tonkovich teaches writing at UC Irvine and edits the Santa Monica Review.
In the case of a wildfire:
Before
• Review your insurance coverage.
• Take photos of the house and its contents.
• Have flashlights and batteries handy.
• Do not lock your front door. Firefighters needing to get in are more likely to require access than looters.
• Close windows to limit damage.
• Turn off propane.
During
• Call your insurance agent.
• Cell phones are even more amazing when you truly need them. Keep one handy. Use your car charger.
• Keep receipts.
After
• Coordinate with insurance agent.
• Register with FEMA; registering online is easiest.
• Wear a mask.
• Don't open doors and windows. It stinks out there!
• Resist the urge to use that leaf blower, and don't start hosing down surfaces either. Soot and ash blow in, get tracked inside and leave carpets worse than the actual fire. Blowing only moves the ash around, ensuring your neighbors will ingest it.
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