 Joined: 20/05/2012(UTC) Posts: 400
|
We had a massive house fire. A good number of the locomotives/rolling stock were in the basement in a closed room so not much soot/smoke (or heat) made it into there. There is however a really bad burn smell throughout the whole house including the train room. Does anyone have any advice on "cleaning" the locomotives/stock and boxes?
The insurance is planning to dry dust all the models off and place everything into a ozone chamber for the smell.
Has anyone had to deal with this before? Any advice?
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Joined: 22/01/2012(UTC) Posts: 1,047
|
I haven't, however I have experience dealing with insurance companies. They only want to save money, they don't care about anything else and they will force their own cheap contractors on you.
Depends how bad it is, if it is bad it could take years for the smell to go without doing anything, cleaning can be done but it can be risky and complex for large quantities. I am sorry this happened to you, what I suggest is first I will try to leave everything in a well ventilated area -inside the house somewhere that is not affected- and hope for the best but I would not let anybody sent by the insurance company anywhere near any of my trains.
|
 1 user liked this useful post by Iamnotthecrazyone
|
|
|
|
Joined: 15/03/2003(UTC) Posts: 9,593 Location: Australia
|
I am really sorry to hear that this has happened to you and your family. I hope that no one was injured in the fire.
You can try things like trays of bi-carbonate of soda around the train room.. Replace them every couple of months after stiring them once a fortnight.. I use it to get the musty old book smeel out of my train room..
But it will take years to lose the smell - locos can be disassembled and cleaned etc, but it is the boxes, scenery, books, art work and other stuff that absorbs the smoke that will be the long term problem. I agree that I would not let the Insurance company touch my trains either - unless they were a company that specialises in collectibles.. |
Adrian Australia flag by abFlags.com |
1 user liked this useful post by xxup
|
|
|
|
 Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,802 Location: Crozet, Virginia
|
My sister had a similar problem and the ozone treatment worked like magic, completely removing all of the smoke smell. I have no idea how that treatment might affect your trains or the electronics though, so you might want to do some research.
If you do that, I hope this works as well for you and so sorry to hear about the fire.
Good Luck! |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
3 users liked this useful post by dickinsonj
|
|
|
|
Joined: 28/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 8,227 Location: Montreal, QC
|
I agree that I would not let anybody who is not an expert on collectables touch the models. As far as the boxes, you can try the ozone treatment. In many cases, the smell will eventually dissipate if the items are in well ventilated area. If you can, remove the items from the affected area so they are not exposed to additional smells. I don't know if you have another location that you can store them. You can always rent a storage space.
What is really important is that you and your family are OK.
Best of luck with the recovery and insurance claim.
Regards
Mike C
|
1 user liked this useful post by mike c
|
|
|
|
 Joined: 05/03/2014(UTC) Posts: 704 Location: Finland
|
Originally Posted by: dickinsonj  My sister had a similar problem and the ozone treatment worked like magic, completely removing all of the smoke smell. I have no idea how that treatment might affect your trains or the electronics though, so you might want to do some research.
If you do that, I hope this works as well for you and so sorry to hear about the fire.
Good Luck! Hi, Ozone treatment is safe to everything but humans and animals. It is important to air out the basement very well after the treatment. Highly recommended! Åke
|
2 users liked this useful post by Br502362
|
|
|
|
Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,277
|
Originally Posted by: tulit
We had a massive house fire. A good number of the locomotives/rolling stock were in the basement in a closed room so not much soot/smoke (or heat) made it into there. There is however a really bad burn smell throughout the whole house including the train room. Does anyone have any advice on "cleaning" the locomotives/stock and boxes?
The insurance is planning to dry dust all the models off and place everything into a ozone chamber for the smell.
Has anyone had to deal with this before? Any advice?
The fire smoke smells! Paper/boxes smells for years so throw away it. Not worth to keep it. Maybe clothes can been washing by wash off the fire smoke,but that must been repeat some washing before to use them. Yours layout with the wood smells too for long time. Maybe to paint with the painter colors helps by cover wood frames? |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
|
1 user liked this useful post by Goofy
|
|
|
|
Joined: 31/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 609 Location: Toronto, Ontario
|
Sorry to hear. There was a dealer who had a similar challenge. In 1997 micro macro Mundo had a DC8 cargo plane crash into the parking lot. There was a large resulting fire and they had to deal with the stock aftermath. You may want to contact them to find out what they did.
|
1 user liked this useful post by jcrtrains
|
|
|
|
 Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,771 Location: New Zealand
|
Sorry to hear about your disaster Tulit! I hope your KM-1 and other Gauge 1 and H0 items are otherwise safe and sound, likewise other valuable and irreplaceable items.
I hope you can get everything restored and repaired as quickly as possible, as insurance companies can be a pain to deal with - we have people in Christchurch here in NZ still trying to get their houses repaired / rebuilt six years after the earthquakes there.
|
1 user liked this useful post by Bigdaddynz
|
|
|
|
Joined: 10/02/2006(UTC) Posts: 3,997
|
let them try their treatment on some lower value items, if it works proceed.... |
|
1 user liked this useful post by DaleSchultz
|
|
|
|
Joined: 27/11/2009(UTC) Posts: 1,218 Location: Middle of the US
|
Good luck and I am sorry you had a fire. In my experience the rehab companies are pretty good and know what they are doing but I agree with Dale, try a few items first and see how it goes. Again, good luck.
Chris
|
1 user liked this useful post by Chris6382chris
|
|
|
|
Joined: 20/05/2012(UTC) Posts: 400
|
Thanks guys.
We ended up agreeing for me to pack up all the items. They'll take them to their facility, I'll meet them there and unpack them in their ozone room. They'll leave them in there for 24 hours and then I'll go back and repack everything. We wont try physically cleaning them off and see how this works. Lots of extra work but probably the safest.
|
3 users liked this useful post by tulit
|
|
|
|
Joined: 21/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 1,730 Location: Toronto
|
So sorry to hear about the fire, Tulit. Good luck with your ozone treatment. Please let us know how it works out.
As much as what happened is terrible, at least no-one was hurt in the fire. That is the most important thing.
Take care.
Silvano |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.
