Our homes provide us with safety, shelter, comfort and are a vital part of daily lives. House fires disrupt all aspects of life and can cause serious emotional distress for you and your loved ones. If you or someone you know experiences a fire loss, there are some basic steps that can help you emotionally as you work through the multiple challenges that are ahead.
- Discuss the loss with family and friends, this is not the time to “hold” it all in. Crying is a healthy way to release negative feelings. Hugs are very helpful as well.
- When friends and family offer to help you, be grateful and accept it. There is a lot of work to do to recover from a fire.
- Let community organizations help any way they can.
- Try to keep as normal a schedule as the situation will allow. Find a comfortable place to stay and try to get plenty of sleep.
- Children are hit especially hard by fire, take advantage of the free counseling offered by your local Red Cross Chapter. Keep them in school as much as possible and take them to as many of their regular weekly activities as possible.
- Keep your alone time to a minimum. Spending more time with others will speed your recovery.
- Eat healthy meals and limit fast food intake until life gets more back to normal.
- It’s okay to still have fun. Don’t let the loss get you too low.
- Exercise, exercise, exercise.
- Remember that you will go through many emotional stages after a fire such as shock, anger, depression and hopelessness. They will pass and you will rebuild your life.
- Don’t add to an already stressful time by making large life decisions such as changing jobs.
The first step after a home fire is to contact PuroClean Certified Restoration so that we can professionally remediate your fire damage. Our trained professionals can help keep your disaster from turning into a nightmare.
This video is an example of a home fire damage restoration project that we worked on: