If a fire just went through your home in Davie, your first call for fire damage restoration is RestorationXpress at (954) 932-5420, for board-up, soot and smoke cleanup, and drying out the water firefighters used to put the fire out. The company has worked Davie fire losses since 2011, holds a 4.9-star Google rating across 141 reviews, and takes calls 24/7.
That’s the short version. The order you make the rest of your calls in, insurer, restoration company, then rebuild contractor, matters more than most homeowners realize, because each one depends on the one before it.
What’s the right order of calls after a house fire in Davie?
Once Davie Fire Rescue clears the home for re-entry, call your insurance company first to open the claim, then a fire restoration company for board-up and mitigation, then a rebuild contractor once drying and cleaning are complete. The first two calls often happen on the same day.
Here’s why that order holds up:
- Insurance company. Call them before you touch anything. Opening the claim starts the clock on an adjuster assignment and usually authorizes emergency mitigation (board-up, tarping, water extraction) under the policy’s duty-to-mitigate provision, so you’re not paying out of pocket while you wait for an inspection.
- Fire restoration company. They secure the structure (boarding broken windows and doors, tarping roof openings), extract the standing water left behind from suppression efforts, and begin removing soot before it etches permanently into tile, grout, and stucco, a fast process in South Florida’s heat and humidity. See the full breakdown in our fire damage restoration process guide.
- Rebuild contractor. Reconstruction (drywall, flooring, cabinetry) only starts once the structure is dry, clean, and the insurance scope is finalized. Pushing this step earlier usually means redoing finished work.
Homes in Pine Island Ridge, Shenandoah, and Rolling Hills face the exact same timeline whether the loss is a kitchen fire or a full structure fire. Waiting a few extra days to “see how bad it really is” tends to turn a one-room smoke job into a whole-house odor problem, because soot is acidic and keeps degrading surfaces the longer it sits, per the ANSI/IICRC S700 fire and smoke restoration standard.
What happens when you call a fire restoration company?
The first call is a short intake: your address, which rooms were affected, whether the fire department shut off utilities, and whether you’ve already contacted your insurer. Have your policy number handy if you have it, though it isn’t required to get someone started.
On arrival, the crew does three things before any cleanup begins. First, a walk-through to document every affected surface and room with photos, which becomes part of the record your insurer’s adjuster reviews. Second, moisture readings in areas hit by suppression water, since wet drywall left unaddressed can start supporting mold growth within 24 to 48 hours according to the EPA. Third, securing the structure: boarding openings, setting up air scrubbers to start pulling smoke particulate out of the air, and staging equipment for the drying and soot-removal phases.
Don’t start wiping soot off walls or furniture yourself in the meantime. Dry-wiping soot almost always grinds it deeper into paint, fabric, and finishes instead of lifting it off; our soot removal guide for Davie homeowners covers exactly what to leave alone until a crew with the right sponges and HEPA equipment gets there.
Will my homeowners insurance cover this?
Most standard homeowners policies cover sudden, accidental fire damage, including smoke and soot damage to the structure and contents, though coverage specifics vary by insurer and policy. Document everything with photos before cleanup starts and keep every receipt tied to the loss.
The mitigation work (board-up, water extraction, soot cleanup) is typically billed to the claim directly once the adjuster approves scope, which is one reason getting the insurance call in early, before the restoration crew finishes its assessment, keeps the process moving. The Insurance Information Institute’s guide to settling claims after a disaster walks through what documentation adjusters typically ask for.
If you’re a few towns over, we also cover fire losses in Hollywood and Sunrise on the same call order described above.
Request a fire damage assessment: (954) 932-5420