Fire and smoke damage to books and documents

Fire Damage

Fire damage is restorable in the vast majority of cases. Tightly packed paper will not necessarily burn and damage - chiefly caused by smoke residue - is usually restricted to the outer edges, leaving the information inside the book block, archive box or file in tact.

Depending on the design of a given building, or the presence of an HVAC system, during a fire the smoke residues can travel great distances from the source of the actual fire, potentially creating widespread damage, even if the fire itself only affected one room. Within an office or library, this smoke can present an immense problem, as without restoration, the damaged paper will not safe or practical to use.

HDRS offers high quality and low cost processes to combat the problems of fire damage: soot/charring and penetrating odours, which render the paper unusable without treatment. Our cleaning and deodorisation techniques have been developed utilizing advanced separation process technologies and specialist conservation apparatus and these purge both the noxious residual gases and solids from the paper.

Costs of restoring a smoke-damaged school book can be as low as £1, clearly a better option than replacement in terms of convenience and cost.