Fire, Smoke and Water Damage Restoration in West Hills

On the afternoon of November 8, 2018, the Woolsey Fire started near the former Rocketdyne complex in the Simi Hills. The next evening, Los Angeles ordered everyone west of Valley Circle Boulevard, from Roscoe Boulevard south to Vanowen Street, to leave. It was the first mandatory evacuation inside city limits for that fire. The orders were lifted a few days later, with a warning that power outages could continue.

Most homes west of Valley Circle never burned, but a lot of them took in smoke. Smoke and ash get into attic insulation, return-air ducts, closets and upholstery, and the smell comes back on the first hot day. The order of work matters: photograph every room and the furnace filter before cleaning, keep receipts for anything you buy, and have the house assessed before it is aired out, because the house itself is the evidence a smoke claim depends on. We clean soot from surfaces, clean the duct system, and treat odor at the source.

West Hills came late. Part of what is now the neighborhood, the old Platt Ranch, did not join the Los Angeles water system until 1958 and was not built on until 1961. In 1987 residents petitioned to separate the western part of Canoga Park, and the name West Hills was made official. The result is a neighborhood of one era: in ZIP code 91307 nine in ten housing units are detached houses, the median was built in 1966, and close to eight in ten households own their home.

Sixty-year-old houses with long-time owners have a recognizable set of leaks. Original galvanized and copper lines narrow and pinhole. Water heaters sit in garages and interior closets. Supply lines under a slab wear through. A leak in a house the family has lived in for decades often goes unnoticed because the house has always sounded and smelled the same. We use moisture meters and thermal imaging to find where the water went, then dry it with daily readings until the structure holds dry.

Bell Creek runs through the neighborhood. It comes down out of Bell Canyon, enters a concrete flood control channel near Bell Canyon Road, passes under Valley Circle Boulevard and runs east just south of Highlander Road toward Canoga Park. The creek was channelized in the late 1950s, and it carries storm runoff away from the streets. The storm water that gets into a house here usually comes off a slope behind a back yard or out of a gutter that could not keep up.

Homes that back up to the hills and the open space toward El Escorpión Park and Upper Las Virgenes Canyon see runoff that carries soil and debris after a hard rain, especially after a fire has burned the slope above. Water that comes in that way is contaminated. It is removed, the surfaces are cleaned and disinfected, and then the drying starts.

Before we get there, close the main or the fixture shutoff, keep the power off in any room where water reached an outlet, move photos, papers and rugs off the floor, and take pictures of every wet room. If smoke is the problem, keep the windows closed until the house has been assessed.

Mold follows water that sat, and a slow leak behind a vanity in a quiet house can grow for weeks. We handle mold under containment with HEPA filtration and tell you plainly what we found. When a room has to be emptied, we pack out contents with a photographed inventory and bring them back clean.

On insurance, we document the loss with photos, readings and daily drying logs, estimate our own scope of work, and can bill your carrier directly for our services. Coverage questions belong to your carrier, your agent or a public adjuster you hire. We respond anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside around the clock, our technicians hold IICRC certifications including fire and smoke restoration, we work in English and Spanish, and the first inspection is free.