Example: a small shop fire with building-wide smoke

The situation

Illustrative example. Not a real job or customer.

In a hypothetical light manufacturing plant, a parts washer and a stack of rags catch fire in the maintenance shop at the back of the main bay late in a shift. A sprinkler head activates and the fire department finishes extinguishing it. Flames stay within the shop, but black smoke rises to the roof, spreads across the open bay, and drifts up an open stairwell to a mezzanine office area whose rooftop unit was running.

1. The building is evacuated and the fire department handles the fire. Afterward, the officer releases the building but asks that the shop area be left as it is until an investigator returns.
2. The facility manager records the incident number, arranges a fire watch while the sprinkler zone is impaired, and calls the insurer.
3. Before cleanup, the manager walks the building with the restoration provider. Dry-sponge wipes at several heights show heavy residue near the shop, lighter residue across the bay and a film in the mezzanine offices.
4. The rooftop unit serving the mezzanine is shut off, and its filters are found loaded with soot.
5. Machines across the bay are covered before overhead cleaning starts, and the plant's electrician inspects control cabinets near the shop.
6. Overhead steel, piping and lights are cleaned top down in zones, with production moved to the cleaner end of the bay.
7. Mezzanine offices are cleaned, the ductwork serving them is cleaned, and odor control follows.

In this example, the shop itself needs reconstruction, but most of the plant reopens in phases once each zone is cleaned. The mezzanine takes longer than expected because the HVAC system carried smoke there.