Small Apartment Fire Flood Three Units;
Stanley Steemer Restoration Dries Entire Building in Under Four Days

ITHACA, NY, October 8, 2005 — In early October, 2005, a small fire was sparked by residents of a large apartment complex near Cornell University. The fire burned a couch and set off sprinklers in the top floor apartment. The sprinklers did their job and quickly put out the fire, however, it flooded three apartments as a result.

Stanley Steemer Restoration was called within an hour of the fire and was at the property within three hours of the fire. The charred items were immediately removed to reduce odor and the staff began the water extraction process in the top floor unit, and worked their way down the other two units.

Stanley Steemer’s technicians were able to save all of the carpet in the three units, except for the room the fire began in, as the fire melted portions of the carpet. The water extraction process took approximately four hours with five technicians on the scene. Because the carpets, walls and ceilings throughout the units were saturated with water, the technicians installed six low-grain dehumidifiers, 30 big-barrel air movers, and an air scrubber in the fire-damaged unit to remove all smoke odors. The next day, a trailer desiccant dehumidifier was installed to treat the middle unit, which had the highest moisture readings.

The drying process was monitored daily with an infrared camera and a DryAir non-penetrating monitor to detect moisture readings through the walls. The entire structure was dried in under four days, allowing it to be cleaned and re-occupied.

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