Smoke Webs

2/4/2020 (Permalink)

Fire can cause pretty interesting webs!

Fires are devastating disasters to all involved.  Sometimes restoration companies such as ourselves, find peculiar results from these fires.  Your first thought when you look at the picture could be "my, those are cob webs" but it is actually something that we refer to as smoke webs, soot webs, or even soot tags!  This is a picture of a home that we performed services on where smoke webs appeared in the corners of the room.

Why do these smoke webs appear?

The ionization process of burning, particularly synthetic materials like plastics, rubbers and polymers, creates charged smoke particles which can attract towards certain surfaces, and attract to each other creating chains, and ultimately web-like formations.  Webs form under certain conditions called wet smoke, which involves low heat, or smoldering type environments.  Smoke webs are typically sticky and pungent and will smudge easily.  These webs will show up in areas where there is limited air flow, typically corners and edges of ceiling.  Depending on what exactly the webs are made of, they can be more difficult to clean.

SERVPRO of Rolla is here to help!  Our franchise is locally owned and operated, so we are already close by and ready to respond immediately when you need us most.  Please give us a call today at (573)-368-5555