In the first 24 hours after a house fire, make sure everyone is safe and accounted for, stay out until the fire department says you can go in, and then call your insurance company, find a safe place to stay, and get the house secured with board-up and tarping. Grab essentials only if you’re allowed back in, document the damage with photos, and don’t start scrubbing soot or running anything electrical. Water from firefighting needs to be extracted and dried quickly too. Knowing what to do after a house fire in that first day can protect your family, your claim and much of what’s left of your home.
Hour zero: everyone out and accounted for
Nothing else matters until people and pets are safe. Once the fire is out, firefighters will check for hidden hot spots and decide whether the house is safe to enter. Some things to know:
- Don’t go back in, even for a minute, until they clear it. Fires can rekindle, and floors and ceilings can be weakened.
- Get medical attention for anyone who breathed smoke, has burns, or feels dizzy or short of breath.
- The fire department or utility companies may shut off gas, power or water. Don’t try to turn them back on yourself.
- Ask the fire officer how to get a copy of the fire report. Your insurance company will likely want it.
The U.S. Fire Administration’s after-a-fire guide is a good, calm reference to keep open on your phone during this first day.
The first few hours: calls to make, in order
- Family and anyone who needs to know you’re safe. It’ll save you a lot of incoming calls later.
- Your insurance company or agent. Report the fire, get a claim number, and ask what your policy says about temporary housing and emergency repairs. Many policies include some form of additional living expense coverage, but what’s included depends on your policy.
- A place to stay. Family, friends or a hotel. If you need help, local relief organizations often assist families after home fires.
- A fire restoration company for board-up, tarping and water extraction. A burned house with open windows or a hole in the roof is exposed to rain and to people who shouldn’t be there.
- Your mortgage lender, who will need to know about the damage.
- Your employer and kids’ school, if you’ll need time or flexibility over the next few days.
If you’re allowed back in: what to grab
If the fire department says a short entry is okay, go in with sturdy shoes, long sleeves and a mask, and keep it brief. Focus on things that are hard to replace or that you’ll need in the next few days:
- Driver’s licenses, passports and other IDs
- Prescription medications, glasses, hearing aids and medical devices
- Phones, chargers, laptops (don’t plug in anything that was exposed to heat or water until it’s checked)
- Wallets, checkbooks, credit cards and keys
- Insurance papers, birth certificates and other important documents
- A few changes of clothes, school bags and work items
- Pet food, leashes, carriers and pet medications
- Irreplaceable items like photos or jewelry if they’re easy and safe to reach
Don’t eat or drink anything that was in the house, including food in the pantry or fridge. Heat, smoke, soot and firefighting water can all contaminate it.
Hours four through twelve: protect what’s left
This is the window where a lot of avoidable secondary damage happens. A house that’s survived a fire can still lose more to weather, water and break-ins.
Secure the structure
Firefighters often break windows, cut holes in the roof to vent heat, and force doors. Those openings need to be boarded and tarped quickly, especially with Middle Tennessee’s sudden storms, which can blow through on short notice in spring and summer. Board-up also keeps people out of a home that’s temporarily empty.
Start on the water
Many people are surprised by how much water damage a fire leaves behind. Hoses soak carpet, drywall, insulation and the floors below. Standing water and wet materials should be extracted and dried as soon as possible, because mold can start on wet materials within a day or two. Our post on preventing mold after water damage explains why that clock matters.
Keep the HVAC off
Running the heating or air conditioning can pull soot through the ductwork and spread it into rooms the fire never touched. Leave it off until a professional has looked at the system.
Hours twelve through twenty-four: take care of your people
By the end of the first day, most of the urgent calls are made and the house is as secure as it’s going to be for now. This is when exhaustion hits. A few practical things help:
- Get everyone fed and into a bed somewhere, even if it’s a friend’s couch. Decisions made at 3 a.m. on no sleep are rarely good ones.
- Keep a notebook or a note on your phone with every name, phone number and claim number you’ve collected today.
- Talk to kids plainly about what happened and where they’ll sleep. Routines like school and practice help them settle.
- Arrange mail forwarding or a hold if you’ll be away from the house for more than a few days.
- Let a trusted neighbor know the house is empty so they can keep an eye out.
- Watch for delayed smoke symptoms like coughing, headaches or trouble breathing, and see a doctor if they show up.
Document everything before it’s moved
Good records make your claim easier and help your restoration crew plan the work. Before anything is cleaned or thrown out:
- Take wide photos of every room, including ones that seem untouched
- Get close-ups of burned areas, soot on walls and ceilings, and water damage
- Photograph the outside from every side, including the roof if you can see it from the ground
- Record video with narration as you walk through, if it’s safe
- Start a list of damaged items, even rough notes, while it’s fresh
- Keep every receipt for hotels, meals, clothes and emergency services
Many of the same habits apply as with a water claim. Our guide on what to document for insurance after water damage has a useful checklist that carries over to fire losses.
What not to do in the first 24 hours
- Don’t scrub walls, ceilings or upholstery. Soot smears and can set into surfaces.
- Don’t turn on lights, ceiling fans or appliances that were exposed to heat, smoke or water.
- Don’t run the HVAC system.
- Don’t throw things away before they’re photographed and listed.
- Don’t sign a contract on the spot with anyone who shows up uninvited. Take a breath, check them out and talk to your insurance company.
- Don’t stay in the house overnight unless the fire department and utility companies have said it’s safe.
How the first day looks in two very different fires
A small fire, a big mess. Say a pan fire on the stove gets out of hand but you put it out with an extinguisher before firefighters arrive. They check it and confirm it’s out. The burned area is limited to the range and the cabinets above it, but smoke has drifted through the whole first floor and there’s a fine layer of soot on the walls, the dining table and the stair railing. Utilities stay on, but the smoke smell and soot make staying there uncomfortable. The first day here is about documenting, getting the kitchen area secured and cleaned up enough to be safe, keeping the HVAC off, and arranging a professional cleaning plan before anyone starts wiping down walls.
A serious fire with heavy water. Now say a fire starts in an attached garage overnight and spreads into the attic. Firefighters put a lot of water into the house to knock it down, and they cut an opening in the roof to vent the heat. The family is safe but can’t stay in the house. The first day is about temporary housing, getting the roof tarped and windows boarded before the next rain, extracting the water from every floor, and documenting everything. Decisions about rebuilding come later.
Looking ahead to day two and beyond
The first 24 hours are about safety and stabilizing the house. After that comes a detailed assessment of the structure and contents, soot and smoke cleaning, drying, odor work and eventually repairs. You don’t need to have all those answers on day one. What you need is a safe place to sleep, a claim number, a secured house and someone who can start drying it out.
Our fire damage repair team handles emergency board-up and tarping, water extraction from firefighting, soot and smoke cleanup, and reconstruction. Our technicians are IICRC certified, and we’ll document the damage with photos and a detailed scope of work to support your claim. We work with all insurance companies, though we don’t bill insurance directly.
Areas we serve
We help families recover from house fires all over Middle Tennessee. In Oak Hill and Green Hills, our crews are typically on site within about 60 minutes, day or night.
If you’ve just had a fire, call Water Damage Pros TN at (629) 250-3594. We answer 24/7 and can get the house secured and the water out while you take care of your family. You can also request a free estimate online.
