SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tucked away in the Lake Tahoe basin, hundreds of homes were saved from the Caldor Fire's unforgiving path.
"It's nice to be able to come back and get things straightened out and know your house is still standing," Berly Larue, who returned home after evacuating earlier this week told ABC10.
And while the flames might be gone from her area, the lingering smell of smoke isn't.
"I wouldn't expect there to be any long term damage to the structures themselves, there's probably going to be some residual odor of smoke in homes for a while until after awhile they're ventilated sufficiently," Dave Johnston, an Air Pollution Control Officer for the El Dorado County Air Quality Management District said.
Johnston says his best piece of advice for returning fire evacuees is to check the air quality index first before opening up those doors and windows.
"When that index is low, when it's down in the moderate range, that would be a good time to open up their homes, use the fans to try and air them out and reduce the amount of smoke odor that they have inside of their residences," Johnston said.
"The better job that can be done cleaning, the higher the likelihood they're not going to have odor problems," David Ragsdale, a Production Manager for SERVPRO Industries said.
Ragsdale specializes in fire, water, mold and bio cleanup, including smoke restoration.
"The soot really is what's carrying the smell and once you can identify where all of that soot is, then it's just a matter of starting the cleaning process, depending on how close the house was to an actual fire, that's going to end up playing into the severity of soot inside of the home," he said.
But if you plan on doing the cleaning yourself, the American Red Cross recommends using products with tri-sodium phosphate on surfaces, walls and ending with ceilings.
"As long as there's not physical damage, there's not usually long-term damage associated with it, the biggest issue is just acting quick," Ragsdale said. "Because the longer that soot sits on a surface, the higher the likelihood that that soot can start to corrode various surfaces."
For those cleaning tips from the American Red Cross, click here.
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