Fire & Smoke · Staten Island
Kitchen fires, furnace puff-back, and smoke damage in full single-family homes mean more square footage of soot and odor to clean. We handle it all and rebuild.
Overview
Staten Island leans toward single-family homes, with townhouses, condos, and apartment complexes across the borough. Fires here start with kitchens, electrical faults, and furnace or boiler puff-back, and because the homes are larger, the smoke and soot spread across more square footage, up through floors and into finished basements and attics. The water used to fight the fire adds its own damage. We clean the soot, pull the odor out, and rebuild what the fire and water took.
Where We Work
From St. George and the North Shore to New Dorp, Great Kills, Tottenville, and the East Shore, we cover all of Staten Island 24/7. See our full fire and smoke damage process, or call 646-543-2242 any time.
Brush Fires
A brush fire doesn't have to touch your siding to fill the house with smoke. It comes in through open windows, attic and soffit vents and the central air intake, and the smell settles into curtains, carpet and the insulation in the attic.
Staten Island has a lot of open land, the Greenbelt and the marsh grass along the West Shore among it, and plenty of houses back right onto it.
In fall 2024 the FDNY reported 229 brush fires citywide between October 29 and November 12, which it called "the highest amount in a two-week period in New York City history." Seventeen of those were on Staten Island.
The FDNY also asked residents to "remove litter and any excessive brush or leaves from sidewalks abutting residences and businesses."
When the smoke came from outside, the job is mostly air and soft goods. We swap the HVAC filter, clean the registers, check the attic insulation near the vents and set up air scrubbers for the smoke odor treatment.
Garage Fires
A garage holds the things that burn hottest, and in many Staten Island houses there are bedrooms or a living room right on top of it. The U.S. Fire Administration says garage fires "tend to spread farther and cause more injuries and dollar loss" than fires that start in other parts of the home.
The same USFA sheet recommends a 20-minute fire-rated, self-closing door between the garage and the house, and fire-rated drywall on the ceiling when there's living space above.
In a raised ranch or a high-ranch house, that ceiling is the floor of the rooms upstairs. If it held, we're usually cleaning soot and odor upstairs. If it didn't, the floor framing above the garage gets opened and checked before anything else.
We also look at what was stored in there. Gas cans, paint, propane tanks and battery chargers all matter to the adjuster and to how much of the garage has to come out, so we list them.
How The Job Runs
We start at the garage. Burned garage doors, broken windows and any hole in the roof get boarded or tarped, and standing water comes out of the basement and the lower level the same day.
Next we sort what can be saved. Cleanable things get boxed and taken out, the rest gets photographed and listed, and the drying equipment goes in. Soot comes off dry first, then wet, starting with the rooms farthest from the fire.
Then we rebuild. Our crew replaces the garage ceiling and walls, the floors above them if needed, and the drywall and paint upstairs. For how the claim paperwork lines up with that work, see our fire damage claims page.
On Staten Island, call All Star Restoration at 646-543-2242 for brush-fire smoke, garage fires and fire damage restoration through the rebuild.
Questions
Yes. Puff-back leaves an oily soot that smears if wiped wrong. We clean it properly, deodorize, and restore affected surfaces.
Yes, from soot and odor through full reconstruction, one team from start to finish.
Probably. Smoke from a garage fire usually finds its way through the door to the house and the ceiling into the rooms above, even when nothing upstairs looks burned. We test those rooms for soot and check the framing above the garage before anyone moves back in.
Water, fire, mold, or sewage, one call starts the recovery. We show up fast and we do not leave until it is done right.
Call 646-543-2242 Request ServiceRequest Service
We'll call you right back, and give you a free estimate. For an active emergency, the fastest way to reach us is by phone, day or night.