Statewide Emergency Fire Damage Cleanup in Hawaii, HI
The fire is out, the trucks have left, and now you are standing in the driveway wondering what happens next. One free call to Unify Fire Solutions connects you with a licensed and insured independent restoration contractor who works in your part of Hawaii, HI. We answer around the clock, and dispatch starts while you are still on the phone.
- Free referral line answered 24/7, every day of the year
- Independent local crews serving every corner of Hawaii, HI
- Written, line-item estimates before any work begins
- Guidance on the records your adjuster will want to see
A statewide referral line for the hours after a fire
Unify Fire Solutions is not a restoration company. We are the dispatch desk that gets the right independent contractor moving toward your property.
Most people only deal with fire damage once in their lives, so nobody knows the order of operations. Who do you call first, the insurance company or a contractor? Can you go back inside? Who turns the power back on? Our dispatchers hear those questions all day from callers across Hawaii, HI, and a few minutes on the phone usually sorts out the first steps.
When you call +1-833-336-1630, a live dispatcher asks a short set of questions: the property type, whether the fire department has released the scene, whether there is standing water from the hoses, and whether the roof or windows are open to the weather. Your answers tell us which independent crew in our network fits the job and how quickly the first visit needs to happen.
Every contractor we refer is a licensed and insured independent business that works locally. They own their equipment, employ their own crews, write their own estimates and answer for their own work. Our job is the connection: getting a qualified local pro on the phone with you at 2 a.m. instead of leaving you to scroll through search results on a cracked phone screen.
The line is free to call, and it stays open 24/7, weekends and holidays included. Whether the property is a single-family home, a rented duplex, a condo unit or a storefront, the routing process is the same anywhere in Hawaii, HI.
Have a few things handy when you call, if you can: the property address, the name of your insurance company, your claim number if you already have one, and the incident number from the fire department. If you don't have any of that yet, that's fine. Plenty of people call from a neighbor's porch with nothing but a phone, and the dispatcher will help you figure out what to gather next.
Fire Damage Cleanup services available across Hawaii, HI
A fire leaves three separate problems behind: charred materials, smoke residue that spreads through the whole building, and the water used to knock the fire down. Below is how the independent contractors in our network handle each piece.
Emergency mitigation and stabilization
Mitigation means stopping the damage from getting worse, and in fire work the clock is unforgiving. Soot is acidic. Within a few hours it starts to yellow plastics and vinyl, and within a couple of days it can etch glass, pit chrome fixtures and stain grout for good. Wet drywall and insulation from the hose lines can begin growing mold in 24 to 48 hours.
The independent crew we dispatch will usually start with a safety walk, then secure the building. That often means boarding broken windows and doors with plywood, tarping holes in the roof, and setting temporary fencing if the property sits close to a sidewalk. Then the water: extraction units pull standing water from carpet and subfloor, and soaked carpet pad is generally cut out and bagged.
With the building stable, crews run HEPA air scrubbers to pull fine soot out of the air, sometimes under negative pressure so particles stay out of unaffected rooms. Dehumidifiers and air movers go in where moisture meters show wet framing or drywall.
- Boarding of windows, doors and openings in walls
- Tarps on the roof to keep weather off open framing
- Water extraction and tear-out of soaked materials
- HEPA air scrubbing plus moisture readings
Homes, condos and townhouses
A house fire rarely stays in one room, even when the flames did. Smoke follows air pressure and temperature, which is why you find black rings around outlets in a bedroom at the far end of the hall, or soot lines on the carpet along the baseboards. A residential crew first maps how far the residue spread, room by room, before anyone touches a surface.
Dry soot from a fast, hot fire is powdery, so crews lift it with dry chemical sponges and HEPA vacuums. Wet smoke from a slow, smoldering fire is greasy and calls for alkaline detergents and far more hand work. Kitchen fires leave protein residue, a nearly invisible film that smells terrible and turns surfaces sticky. Every residue needs its own chemistry, and the wrong product can push the stain further into paint and wood.
Burned materials come out until the crew reaches sound framing. Framing that is only blackened, not structurally weakened, is often cleaned with soda or dry ice blasting and then sealed with a shellac-based or pigmented sealing primer to lock in odor before new drywall goes up. It is fair to ask the crew which studs will stay and which will go, and to have that written into the estimate.
- Residue mapping and spot tests before any cleaning
- Targeted tear-out of burned drywall, insulation and trim
- Blasting and sealing of smoke-stained framing
Businesses, rentals and multi-unit buildings
When the property is a business or a rental, the questions multiply. A restaurant owner needs to know when the hood system can be inspected and the health inspector called back. A landlord needs to know which units are habitable and which tenants need temporary housing. A property manager with a fire in one unit of a fourplex has to stop smoke from moving through the shared attic and ducts.
Contractors who handle commercial work often phase the job so part of the space can keep operating. They build temporary poly containment walls with zip-door access, run negative air machines, and schedule the loudest demolition for nights or weekends. For a retail space, that might mean the sales floor reopens while the stockroom is still under containment.
Stock and inventory are a separate issue. Smoke-exposed food, medication, cosmetics and anything in permeable packaging usually has to be discarded and documented for the claim. Have the crew photograph and count every discarded item so the property claim and the business interruption claim match.
- Phased schedules so a portion of the business can reopen
- Containment between occupied and damaged units
- Inventory disposal lists for the claim file
Apartment and condo buildings bring building code into play. Fire-rated assemblies, such as the drywall between units or around a stairwell, have to be rebuilt to the same rating, and damaged fire alarm or sprinkler components need a licensed trade to restore them. Ask whether those items are in the estimate or will be handled by a separate contractor.
Landlords and property managers: ask the contractor for a short written status note on each unit, habitable or not, so you can send it to tenants and your insurer the same day.
Contents cleaning, odor control, ductwork and water
The smell is what most people remember afterward. It gets into clothes, mattresses, the couch, the kids' stuffed animals, and the inside of every closed drawer. Contents specialists pack out salvageable belongings, inventory them box by box, and clean them off site using ultrasonic tanks for hard goods and specialty laundering or dry cleaning for textiles. Electronics often go to a separate vendor who can clean the circuit boards before soot corrodes them.
Odor control happens after cleaning, never instead of it. Crews may use thermal fogging, which mimics the heat of the fire to carry deodorizer into the same pores the smoke reached, or hydroxyl generators that can run while people are present. Ozone works well but the building has to be empty of people, pets and plants, so ask about it first.
An HVAC system that was running during the fire pushed smoke into every room on that system. A duct cleaning crew will inspect the air handler, coil and duct runs, clean or replace flex duct, and swap filters. It is reasonable to ask whether the contractor works to IICRC guidance, including S700 for fire and smoke damage and S500 for water damage.
- Pack-out, inventory and off-site contents cleaning
- Thermal fogging, hydroxyl or ozone deodorization
- Inspection and cleaning of ducts, coil and air handler
Firefighting water is the part people underestimate. An engine can put hundreds of gallons into a building in a few minutes, and it runs down into wall cavities, under cabinets and through ceilings to the floor below. Mixed with soot and ash, it is dirty water, so wet carpet, pad and insulation are usually removed rather than dried in place. Crews pull baseboards or drill small vent holes to dry wall cavities, and they log moisture readings until the framing is back to a normal dry level.
- Structural drying after the firefighting water
- Electronics cleaned by a specialty vendor
Standing in front of a burned house right now?
Call the free line and a dispatcher will walk you through the next hour and start finding an independent crew near you.
Call +1-833-336-1630What you can expect from a Unify Fire Solutions referral
We can't promise what a fire will cost or how long the rebuild takes. Here is what we can tell you plainly.
Written estimates up front
The independent contractor provides a written, line-item estimate before work starts, and you should always ask for one. Many crews in Hawaii, HI build estimates in the same software adjusters use, so the two documents can be compared side by side.
Dispatch at any hour
The phone is answered 24/7 and dispatch starts the moment you call. Arrival time depends on which crews are free and how far away they are, and it is often the same day.
Independent crews working statewide
The network reaches cities, suburbs and rural communities throughout Hawaii, HI. The crew you get is local to your area and knows how the nearby building department and utilities operate.
Licensed and insured pros
We refer callers only to licensed and insured independent contractors. Even so, check the license and request a certificate of insurance before you sign, and ask if the crew works to IICRC S700 guidance.
A second option if you need one
If the first contractor isn't the right fit, for any reason, call back and we'll connect you with another one. It might be scheduling, a second estimate your adjuster asked for, or just a bad fit in personality. Any of those is a fine reason.
Getting two estimates is common on larger fire jobs, and many adjusters welcome it. Just make sure both contractors are pricing the same scope, item for item, so you are comparing like with like.
Your statewide fire recovery decision guide
No two fires are alike, yet the sequence of decisions is remarkably similar anywhere in Hawaii, HI. Work through this list while a crew is on the way.
- 1
Safety first, then the call
Stay out until the fire department tells you it's safe to return. Then call +1-833-336-1630. A dispatcher will ask about the scene, the water, and any open roof or windows, and will start looking for a crew right away.
- 2
Crew arrives and secures
The contractor walks the property with you, documents it in photos, and boards or tarps openings. If water is standing, extraction often starts on the first visit.
- 3
Scope of work in writing
You receive a written estimate, line by line, with mitigation split out from rebuild work. You or the contractor share it with your adjuster, and nothing beyond emergency stabilization should start until you sign.
- 4
Clean-up, drying and odor work
Crews remove charred materials, dry the structure, clean soot from every affected surface, and treat odor. Moisture readings and photos are logged daily so the adjuster can see the progress.
- 5
Repairs and final walkthrough
Permitted repairs follow, from framing and electrical to drywall, paint and flooring. Before the final invoice, walk the property with the contractor and make a punch list of anything left undone.
In the first hour, before a crew gets there: get everyone out and accounted for, including pets. Do not re-enter until the fire department releases the scene, and never switch breakers on or off yourself after a fire. Ask the firefighters for the incident number and write it down, because your insurer will need it. If you can safely do so from outside, take wide photos and video of every side of the building.
Fire department release and red-tagged properties
The fire department controls the property until it formally releases the scene. If investigators are still working out the cause, you may be kept out for hours or, occasionally, a couple of days.
After the release, a building official from your city or county may post a placard. A green tag generally means the building can be occupied, a yellow tag means limited entry, and a red tag means nobody goes in until the structure is evaluated. The placard system differs from one jurisdiction to the next in Hawaii, HI, so read the notice and call the number on it.
A red tag doesn't stop mitigation from the outside. Crews can still board, tarp and fence, and many work with a structural engineer to get the red tag lifted.
Power, gas and water shutoffs
Firefighters often cut power at the meter and close the gas valve during the fight. Once a utility has been shut off for a fire, the provider usually will not restore service until the system is inspected, and sometimes a licensed electrician or plumber must sign off first.
For that reason, restoration crews usually arrive with generators to power the scrubbers and dehumidifiers. Contact your power, gas and water companies directly, report the fire, and ask what they require before restoring service.
If water service is still live and a line ruptured in the heat, close the main shutoff. You'll usually find it near the meter or where the supply enters the building.
Working with your insurance adjuster
Call your insurance company the same day and get a claim number. Most policies require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, which is exactly what emergency mitigation is. You don't have to wait for the adjuster to approve boarding, tarping or drying, though you should keep every receipt.
Contractors throughout Hawaii, HI normally bill in two parts: a mitigation invoice for board-up, water removal, drying and cleanup, and a restoration invoice for the rebuild. Adjusters handle the two differently, so separating them keeps the claim moving. Ask for dated photos, daily moisture logs, and a contents inventory, and request copies of everything sent to the insurer.
When the home can't be lived in, many policies cover additional living expenses, also called loss of use, for things like a hotel and meals. Limits vary from policy to policy, so ask your agent what applies and keep all receipts.
Building permits for fire repairs
Cleaning and mitigation usually don't need a permit. Structural repairs, rewiring, new framing, a new roof and HVAC replacement nearly always require one. In Hawaii, HI, local city and county building departments issue permits, which means forms, fees and inspection timing differ by location.
An experienced local contractor will know the nearby office and will typically pull the permit under their own license. Make sure the permit is posted on site and that inspections are signed off before walls are closed up. Your insurer may ask for the final inspection record before releasing the last payment.
Opening the walls of an older home can bring up new issues. When the house is old enough to have asbestos in ceiling texture, flooring or duct wrap, or lead paint, testing may be needed before tear-out. Repairs may also have to meet the current code rather than the code the house was built under, which some policies cover as ordinance or law coverage, so ask your agent.
Landlord and tenant responsibilities
With a rental property, the structure and the renter's belongings typically fall under different policies. Usually the owner's policy covers the building and fixtures, and the renter's policy covers the tenant's furniture, clothes and temporary housing.
Landlords should contact tenants in writing about access, timelines and whether the unit is habitable. Tenants should photograph their own belongings before the pack-out and get a copy of the contractor's contents inventory. Landlord and tenant obligations after a fire are set by Hawaii, HI law and your lease, so check the lease and ask a local attorney or housing office if anything is unclear.
The landlord or the tenant can call us. In most cases the owner signs for the building work and the tenant handles the contents claim, and one crew can do both if everyone agrees.
Reopening a small business after a fire
A shuttered business loses money every day, which makes fast mitigation even more important. Call your commercial insurer about business interruption coverage and document lost revenue from the first day.
Food service, salons, clinics and grocers usually need a health or fire inspection before they can reopen. Have the contractor write a phased schedule that shows what has to be done ahead of each inspection.
Before the computers are moved, make sure your sales system, payroll and customer records are backed up. Then tell your landlord, if you lease the space, because the lease usually spells out who pays for which repairs.
Why the first 24 to 72 hours matter: soot keeps etching surfaces, wet materials start to grow mold, and odor soaks deeper into porous materials every day it sits. Getting mitigation going early is often the biggest factor in how much can be cleaned instead of thrown out.
Notes from people who called the line
Shared with permission, with last names shortened.
The dryer vent caught at about eleven at night. By the time the fire department cleared us, I couldn't think straight. The dispatcher asked me five or six simple questions and told me to get the incident number before the engine left. The contractor was there the next morning, boarded the laundry room, and had extraction going before my adjuster even called back.
I own two rental duplexes and one tenant had a kitchen fire. What helped most was the contractor keeping the mitigation bill separate from the rebuild estimate. The adjuster signed off on the first invoice in a week, and the neighboring tenant stayed put because the crew sealed off the shared wall and attic.
We rented our place and the fire started in the unit below us. I had no idea my renter's insurance covered a hotel until the dispatcher told me to ask my agent about it. The crew packed out our clothes and the kids' things and gave me a typed inventory, which made the claim a lot easier.
A grease fire shut down my restaurant on a Friday. The contractor set up plastic walls so we could get the dining room cleaned and inspected while they kept working on the kitchen. They wrote out exactly what needed finishing before the health inspection, and we passed on the first try.
The first contractor I talked to couldn't begin for close to a week. I called the line again, explained the delay, and the dispatcher put me in touch with another crew that started the next day. No pushback and no runaround, which was exactly what I needed.
Fire damage questions from Hawaii, HI callers
How fast can a Fire Damage Cleanup technician arrive in Hawaii, HI?
We begin dispatching as soon as you call, and someone answers at any hour. How soon a crew arrives depends on which independent contractors are available and how far they are from your property. In most of Hawaii, HI it is often the same day, and the dispatcher will tell you what to expect before you hang up.
Do you provide upfront pricing?
Unify Fire Solutions doesn't set prices, because we don't do the work. The independent contractor provides a written, line-item estimate before work starts, and you should ask for one before signing anything. Emergency board-up or water extraction may begin right away to prevent more damage, but ask the crew to explain those charges in writing too.
What emergency services are available?
Contractors in our network typically handle board-up, roof tarping, water extraction, structural drying, soot cleanup, HEPA air filtration and odor treatment. A lot of them also handle contents pack-out and storage, duct cleaning, and the rebuild after mitigation. Describe the damage to the dispatcher and we'll connect you with a crew that handles it.
Do contractors in HI work directly with my insurance company?
Most independent crews in HI deal with adjusters every week. They build a file with photos, moisture logs and a line-item estimate, and with your OK they'll send it to the adjuster. The policy is still your contract with your insurer, so you have the final say and should keep a copy of every document.
Do I need a permit for fire damage repairs in Hawaii, HI?
Cleaning and mitigation usually don't, but structural, electrical, roofing and HVAC repairs almost always do. Permits in Hawaii, HI are issued by your local city or county building department, and requirements vary by location. In most cases the local contractor pulls the permit and books the inspections.
Can I stay in my house after a fire?
That depends on what the fire department and the local building official say, and whether power, water and heat can be safely restored. Even after a minor fire, soot and odor can make the home unhealthy to sleep in, particularly for children, older adults and people with asthma. Ask your insurer whether your policy includes additional living expenses for temporary housing.
Should I call my insurance company or a contractor first?
Call both on the same day, in whatever order works. Your policy almost certainly requires you to prevent further damage, so you don't have to wait for the adjuster before boarding up or removing water. Get a claim number, keep every receipt, and let the contractor know your claim number so their paperwork matches.
What should I throw away after a fire?
Discard any food, medication or cosmetics exposed to heat, smoke or hose water. Before you toss anything else, photograph it and list it for the claim; the contractor can help decide what is salvageable. Clothing, dishware and solid furniture that look ruined can often be cleaned.
Is it safe to clean up soot myself?
Wiping soot with a wet rag usually smears it deeper into paint and fabric, and some residue contains acids and fine particles you don't want to breathe. If you must go in for essentials, wear gloves and an N95 mask, and keep fans and the HVAC off. Let the crew handle cleanup, since they'll test the residue and pick the correct products.
Does Unify Fire Solutions serve every part of Hawaii, HI?
The network covers metro areas, suburbs and rural towns across Hawaii, HI. In remote areas the nearest crew may be farther away, so the dispatcher will be upfront about expected timing. Call +1-833-336-1630 with your address and we'll tell you who can get there.
Statewide Fire Damage Cleanup coverage in Hawaii, HI
One phone number reaches independent crews anywhere in Hawaii, HI, from dense metro neighborhoods to farmhouses at the end of a gravel road.
In metro areas, there are usually several contractors within reach, so the dispatcher can match on specialty, like commercial kitchens or high-rise condos. Suburban crews see plenty of attached garage fires, dryer vent fires and kitchen fires in single-family houses. In rural Hawaii, HI the closest crew may drive farther and usually brings generators and trailers, since utilities can take longer to come back.
- Single-family homes
- Condos and townhouses
- Apartment buildings
- Rental duplexes
- Mobile and manufactured homes
- Restaurants
- Retail stores
- Offices
- Warehouses
- Churches and schools
- Detached garages
- Barns and outbuildings
Common causes we hear about include kitchen fires, dryer vents, space heaters, electrical faults, candles, lightning strikes, grills, garage fires, furnace puff-backs and fire spreading from a neighbor's property. Whatever the cause, the first call is the same.
You can call even if you live elsewhere and the fire is at a rental you own or a relative's house. The dispatcher can work with a neighbor, tenant or manager who is on site, and the contractor can email you photos and the written estimate before anything past emergency stabilization starts.
