Our Work
Recent fire damage restoration projects.
After a fire, the smoke and water from suppression do as much damage as the flames. We handle board-up, soot removal, odor neutralization, contents cleaning, and full structural reconstruction — billed direct to your fire claim.
The hardest part of fire restoration isn't the fire — it's the layered damage from smoke and the firefighting water. Soot is acidic; left untreated it corrodes metal and stains permanently within days. Smoke odor migrates into HVAC, insulation, and behind drywall. We handle all of it, plus the structural rebuild.
Sanibel fire restoration is rare but premium-tier — beachfront homes with custom finishes, original artwork, and HOA aesthetic standards. Restoration scope requires marine-grade material selection and specialized content cleaning.
Our Sanibel crew works across the full city — from Sanibel Lighthouse, J.N. Ding Darling NWR, Bowman's Beach, Periwinkle Place, Sanibel-Captiva Causeway, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum — and we're familiar with how fire damage restoration scope changes between Sanibel Bayou and Gulf Ridge.
Sanibel disaster history: Hurricane Ian (2022 — barrier island devastation), Hurricane Charley (2004), repeated tropical impacts. Post-disaster construction quality varies — fire restoration scope often uncovers prior storm damage that was never fully addressed.
Fire restoration on Sanibel is rare but specialized. The most common ignition we see here is generator-related — a portable unit run too close to the structure during a hurricane-induced power outage, or a permanently installed standby unit with a fuel-line failure. Add salt-impregnated soffit vents, custom Gulf-front finishes, and a road-restricted causeway that limits how fast specialty equipment can reach the island, and the standard fire-restoration playbook needs modification before crews even arrive.
Synthetic combustion in a Sanibel coastal home — wicker furniture treated with marine sealants, rattan rugs, polyurethane-coated heart pine — produces a wet acidic smoke that bonds aggressively to the salt film already deposited on every interior surface within a half-mile of the Gulf. Standard dry-sponge cleaning lifts visible soot but leaves the chloride-acid residue beneath, and that is what reactivates odor every time humidity rises above 60%. We neutralize with a controlled alkaline wash on metals and a thermal-fog hydroxyl treatment on porous finishes, then verify with surface pH strips before reconstruction begins.
Most Sanibel homes built or rebuilt in the last 20 years sit on raised pilings or piers under V-zone elevation rules. A fire that compromises the framing on an elevated structure creates a structural-shoring scenario the average mainland fire crew is not equipped to handle — you cannot just prop the second floor from a slab below because there is no slab below, just sand or breakaway enclosure. We work with a structural engineer who has stamped enough Sanibel rebuilds to know which connection details matter and where temporary cribbing can be set without compromising the substructure or violating Sanibel building department review.
When the Sanibel Fire & Rescue District responds, suppression water in a closed elevated structure can stand for hours before drainage finishes. That is Category 3 water once it sits past 24 hours — bacterial load, fire-byproduct dissolution, dissolved metals. We open the file under combined fire and water mitigation codes from hour one, set extraction and drying alongside the soot containment, and document both scopes in parallel for Citizens, ASI, or whichever HO-3 carrier is on the policy. A single scope handed in late is the most common reason a Sanibel fire claim gets kicked back for re-scoping.
Logistics matter more on Sanibel than on the mainland. We coordinate equipment delivery across the Sanibel-Captiva Causeway during permitted hours, stage extraction and dehu equipment on the lot rather than running back and forth, and dispatch a board-up crew within hours of the call. One project manager carries the file from emergency through reconstruction, with a structural engineer in the loop from day one on any elevated build.
Roof tarp, window board, and structural assessment within hours of dispatch. Stops further damage from rain and intrusion.
Water extraction, structural drying, soot cleaning, and HVAC decontamination. Contents pack-out for off-site cleaning when needed.
Thermal fogging and hydroxyl generators eliminate odor. Then full reconstruction — drywall, paint, flooring, fixtures, finishes.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
Our Sanibel fire damage restoration crew dispatches across the full city — from Sanibel Bayou, Gulf Ridge, Sanibel East End, Sanibel West End, Periwinkle Way corridor, Sanibel Captiva Road, Bowman's Beach, Beachview Estates, covering ZIP codes 33957. Fire damage spread patterns vary between Sanibel's construction types — we adapt our cleaning passes accordingly.
Sanibel insurance carriers we work with: Citizens Coastal, high-value carriers, NFIP V/VE zones. We bill direct on most claims and document to adjuster standards from the first call.
Same crew, same standards — we cover the surrounding cities too:
Generator-related fire ignitions are a recognized post-storm pattern on Sanibel, particularly on properties south of Periwinkle Way where extended grid outages run residential generators past duty cycle and ignite fuel-line or alternator failures. Coverage typically falls under your HO-3 fire peril rather than wind or flood, even though the trigger was storm-adjacent. We document the ignition origin, photograph the generator pad and fuel system, and coordinate with the carrier's cause-and-origin investigator. The claim file should be opened as a separate fire loss, not folded into an existing hurricane file, which protects coverage limits.
Sanibel salt-air infiltration changes smoke chemistry. Chloride ions in residual marine aerosol bond with combustion acids to form salt-acid residues that are far more corrosive to copper wiring, HVAC coils, and stainless fixtures than typical inland smoke. We test residue pH on cabinetry, electronics, and exposed metals with chloride-sensitive strips before specifying cleaning chemistry. Standard alkaline degreasers can fix the chloride to the substrate if applied wrong. For homes near Bowman's Beach and the lighthouse end of the island, we typically specify a neutral-pH detergent first pass followed by a passivation rinse on exposed metals.
Ground-level enclosures on Sanibel V-zone elevated builds are usually non-habitable breakaway construction by FEMA design, but the columns and grade beams supporting the elevated structure above are not. A ground-level fire that touches those columns requires a structural engineer to evaluate residual capacity before we can shore for rebuild. We coordinate with a Florida-licensed PE familiar with Sanibel building department V-zone requirements, and we shore from the slab with engineered posts rather than load-spreading off compromised columns. The engineer's letter goes into the claim file alongside our Xactimate scope.
Closed-up Sanibel homes after a fire concentrate volatile smoke compounds into porous finishes, drywall paper, and HVAC duct interiors. We do not use ozone as a primary deodorization step on coastal properties because ozone accelerates oxidation of already chloride-exposed metals. Instead we run hydroxyl generators continuously during contents pack-out, HEPA-filter the air handler and replace the duct liner if fabric-lined, and seal porous substrates with a pigmented shellac-based primer like BIN before finish coats. For Sanibel-Captiva Causeway absentee owners, we run the deodorization cycle remotely with daily photo and PPM logs.
Yes, and on Sanibel they usually have to, because secondary water damage from suppression can shift Category 1 to Category 2 within 24 hours in the warm humid envelope. We open dual files under your carrier when allowed, run water mitigation under S500 simultaneously with fire scope under S700, and sequence demo so contaminated drywall and insulation exit together. The carrier sees one combined estimate with separated line items for fire peril versus water peril, which prevents the depreciation and deductible double-dip we see when restoration crews try to bill them as sequential losses.
Free estimate. No pressure. Insurance billing handled. Call our Cape Coral line and we'll have a project manager in Sanibel fast.
28720 S Diesel Dr Unit 7
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
Open 24/7 · Emergency Dispatch