How smoke travels through your home

Quick follow-up to that propane story I shared with you a couple of weeks ago.

A few of you wrote back with some version of the same question: How far does smoke actually travel in the home after a fire?

The short answer is, farther than you’d think. And the room right next to the fire isn’t necessarily the room with the most smoke damage.

Smoke moves through hallways and open stairwells, but it also moves through the tiny gaps we forget are there, like wall cavities, openings around plumbing and electrical lines, and HVAC ductwork.

That’s why proximity is a bad way to judge the extent of the damage. A closed-up room down the hall can end up with more residue than the room where the smoke started, depending on how air was circulating that day.

To show you how smoke actually moves through a house, what it leaves behind, and what not to touch until you’ve talked to someone, I put together a new homeowner’s guide last week. You can check it out here.

If you’ve got a question I haven’t answered in there, give me a call or send me an email. I read and respond to every message!

Take care,

Stephen

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Stephen Simmons

Owner | Umpire Mitigation

Call or text us 24/7 at 703-665-1129

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