Hour one belongs to safety and clearance. Do not go back inside until the fire department releases the home, and take their guidance on what is off limits. Fires rekindle, structures weakened by heat and water fail without warning, and smoke residue is not safe to breathe for long. If anyone feels unwell, that is a medical issue first and a property issue second.
In Pontiac, the first 24 hours include a winter step northern crews skip at their peril: once the fire department releases the home, the surviving plumbing must be protected or drained before the open structure meets a January night, or the household will add burst pipes to the fire by morning. The order is safety clearance, claim call, board up measured to survive a snow week, suppression water extraction started the same mobilization, and nothing cleaned, moved, or thrown away before it is photographed. Soot's acid clock and winter's freeze clock run simultaneously here, and the first day's scope answers both.
The first calls, in order, are your insurer to open the claim, and a restoration contractor for board up if windows, doors, or the roof are open. Photograph everything you safely can before anything moves. Do not wipe soot, do not wash walls, do not run the furnace or air conditioning, and do not throw away damaged belongings before they are documented, even the ones that are obviously ruined.
By the end of the first day you should have three things: a claim number, a secured house, and a scheduled assessment. The assessment produces the written scope that everything else, the insurer's estimate, the cleaning plan, the rebuild timeline, is measured against. Keep every receipt from the first night onward; loss of use coverage reimburses from documentation, not memory.
Prefer to talk later? Leave your details and an independent local pro will call you back. No charge to you, no obligation.
Galloway Creek Fire Restoration is a free referral service. Submitting this form connects you with independent local contractors who provide the work.