Smoke and fire damage repair is very important if you have experienced a fire at your home. Whilst you may be tempted to throw everything away, rather than attempting to salvage it, there is actually a lot of items which can be saved using simple fire damage repair techniques. Paying an expert to help you out after a fire may actually be less expensive than discarding all of your possessions and buying new ones. It also means that you will be able to keep many items which have sentimental or technological value to you, or are important in other ways. If you are worried that fire or smoke has damaged your technical equipment, then you should always contact an expert before proceeding.
First steps
If you think that your TV, music system, computer, laptop or any other electrical appliance may have been affected by heat damage or by smoke, you should refrain from turning the device on until it has been checked over by a fire damage repair specialist. Not only could turning the device on be dangerous (the heat may have allowed the electricity to bypass safety connections), it could also irreparably short circuit the device.
The dangers of smoke in electronic devices
Smoke contains carbon which could have coated important components of the device and this could seriously affect the way that the device works. If it has been ascertained that there is soot or smoke residue in your devices, you should not plug them in until they have been completely cleaned. The carbon in soot can bridge circuits, so that your devices will not work as they are supposed to. Improper handling could end up wiping all of your data, and the machine may not be salvageable. The residue will also act as an insulator on any heat producing elements in your devices (there are lots of these in computers and TVS), meaning that these elements will not be able to cool down properly. If these elements are unable to cool down properly, it is highly likely that they will overheat and fail, which will damage the device. Lastly, smoke is normally highly acidic, and contains other corrosive elements which will cause pitting and oxidization. The components in your electronic devices will then corrode more quickly than they should, which will lead to your devices failing prematurely.
Fire damage repair and cleaning
If you think that your electronic devices have been affected by heat or smoke damage, take them to a fire damage repair specialist who is equipped to deal with technology. With electronic devices, the fire damage repair specialist may have to take the device apart, and then begin to clean every single component. In some cases, a few components may need to be replaced, in order for the whole device to continue to be operational. If they cannot help you to salvage the device, they may be able to help you to remove personal data from the device, so that you can access it in another way.
Source: http://orange-restoration.com/services/san-diego-fire-damage-and-smoke-removal/