Fast, Reliable Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Across Crestline
Fire and smoke damage in Crestline homes costs between $2,800 and $18,000 to remediate, depending on how deep the smoke penetrated and whether the cabin sat vacant after the fire. Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration team knows Crestline’s rough-sawn wood cabins and A-frames absorb smoke differently than drywall homes down the hill. Call Wade at (855) 915-0646 and he’ll answer himself, any hour.
Most Crestline homeowners we hear from have one of two situations: a chimney fire that shoved smoke through the whole cabin, or a wildfire that left ash and odor inside a house that sat empty for weeks. Both need more than an ozone machine and a fresh coat of paint. Smoke gets into open-beam ceilings, cedar plank walls, subflooring, and crawlspaces in ways that surface treatments never reach. That’s why we start every Crestline job with a full smoke inspection, not just an estimate.
Why Wade’s Restoration of California Is Crestline’s Preferred Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Company
Wade Ferris founded this company in 2007 and put his own name on the truck. That matters in a small mountain town like Crestline, where the guy who did the work is going to run into you at Jensen’s or the post office on Lake Drive. We answer calls live, 24/7, and Wade himself has driven up Highway 18 at midnight to meet a Crestline homeowner whose cabin filled with smoke from a failed flue. Not a call center. Not a national franchise. A neighbor with a truck and the right equipment.
Our techs are background-checked and uniformed, and they carry IICRC credentials plus professional-grade gear from Dri-Eaz and Phoenix. Every fire and smoke job in Crestline comes with our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If the smoke odor comes back or a hotspot wasn’t fully addressed, Wade makes it right. No phone tag, no arguing. That’s the deal, stamped on the contract.
We also know Crestline’s building stock. Most homes here are wood-frame cabins and A-frames built between the 1940s and 1980s, with rough-sawn beams, open ceilings, and crawlspaces that hold smoke residue like a sponge. A flatland restoration crew might treat the walls and call it done. We go into the attic, the rim joists, the subfloor, and the soffit vents, because that’s where wind-driven ash and weeks of vacancy push the odor.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Services in Crestline
Fire Damage Cleanup
After a chimney fire or kitchen fire in a Crestline cabin, you’re dealing with charred framing, melted fixtures, and water from the fire department’s hoses. We haul out the burned material, document everything for your adjuster with photos, and get the structure stable so secondary damage doesn’t spread. In part-time cabins, this often means working fast before mountain weather turns a fire job into a mold job too.
Smoke & Soot Removal
Crestline’s rough-sawn wood walls and open-beam ceilings hold soot in the grain, not just on the surface. A quick wipe-down leaves residue that keeps off-gassing for months. We use HEPA vacuuming, dry-chem sponges, and thermal fogging to pull soot out of raw wood, then seal surfaces where needed. The February 2023 snowstorms taught us exactly how deep this goes: cabins closed off by Highway 18 for weeks came back with smoke residue bonded into framing that no surface treatment could touch.
Odor Removal & Deodorization
This is where Crestline breaks the standard playbook. In your typical valley house, an ozone treatment clears smoke smell most of the time. In an unsealed wood cabin at 4,700 feet, the odor lives in the timber itself, and cold mountain air keeps it trapped until the house warms up. We use thermal fogging and hydroxyl generators to break down the odor molecules inside the wood, not just mask them. That’s the difference between a cabin that smells clean and one that smells like last winter’s fire every time the heat kicks on.
Contents Cleaning & Pack-Out
Furniture, linens, clothing, and keepsakes from a Crestline vacation cabin need specialized cleaning after smoke exposure, especially if the place sat closed up for weeks. We pack out what can be cleaned, run it through proper deodorization, and store it until your cabin is ready. Wade deals with the adjuster directly on contents claims, so you’re not stuck in the middle translating line items.
Emergency Board-Up & Tarping
If a fire broke a window or burned through a section of roof, snow and rain get in fast. Crestline sees real mountain weather, and an unboarded cabin in January becomes a water damage and mold problem by February. We get up the hill, seal the openings, and tarp the roof so the damage stops where it is. For part-time owners who can’t get here quickly, we’ll do the board-up, photograph it, and send the report to your insurance before you even leave the valley.
Structural Fire Repair
Once the smoke damage is stabilized and the adjuster has approved the scope, we rebuild. New framing, drywall, insulation, roofing, flooring. In Crestline, that means matching the existing wood construction and working around the quirks of older cabins. Wade writes the scope before work starts, in plain English, so you know exactly what you’re paying for and why.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Crestline
We work on every type of fire and smoke damage you’ll find in Crestline, from chimney fires in 1950s cabins to wildfire ash intrusion in newer homes off Lake Gregory Drive. Our crew stocks HEPA air scrubbers, hydroxyl generators, thermal foggers, and Injectidry drying systems on the trucks, so we don’t waste a trip down the mountain for equipment. RIA and IFA standards guide every job, and our Dri-Eaz and Phoenix gear is the same professional-grade equipment the industry’s top restoration firms run.
Common Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Problems We See in Crestline Homes
- Smoke odor bonded into unsealed wood framing. When a Crestline cabin sits closed for weeks after a fire or heavy wildfire smoke, the odor doesn’t just settle on surfaces. It penetrates rough-sawn beams, cedar plank walls, and subflooring. Surface treatments fail, and the smell comes back every warm day.
- Ash forced into soffit vents and rim joists. Wind-driven ash from San Bernardino National Forest fires works its way into attics and crawlspaces through the smallest openings. Homeowners clean the living room and still smell smoke at night because the attic is full of ash that activates with humidity.
- Water damage layered on top of fire damage. The fire department puts out the fire with water, and in a Crestline cabin with minimal insulation and a crawlspace, that water sits. Within days you have mold starting behind baseboards and under flooring, which means fire restoration now includes mold remediation too.
- Delayed board-up on part-time cabins. Owners who can’t get up the mountain for two or three weeks leave broken windows and roof holes open to snow, rain, and animals. What started as a small fire becomes structural rot, and the insurance claim triples. Board-up within 48 hours prevents most of that.
Pricing for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Crestline, CA
Here’s what we actually charge in Crestline, based on jobs we’ve completed on the mountain:
- Odor removal in a 1,200-square-foot cabin: $1,800 to $3,500, depending on whether we’re treating open-beam ceilings and crawlspaces.
- Full smoke and soot cleanup after a chimney fire: $4,000 to $9,000, including HEPA cleaning, thermal fogging, and contents cleaning.
- Emergency board-up and tarping: $450 to $1,200, depending on how many openings and whether we’re working on a steep pitch.
- Pack-out and contents cleaning for a part-time cabin: $1,500 to $5,000, based on volume and what can be restored versus replaced.
- Structural fire repair: $12,000 to $45,000 or more for kitchen fires or roof involvement, because this is scoped, permitted, and scheduled like a remodel.
Every job gets a written scope before work starts. No open-ended hourly billing and no surprise change orders. Call (855) 915-0646 and Wade will give you a straight answer about your situation, usually before he even walks the property.
We Also Serve Cities Near Crestline
When you call us for fire and smoke damage in Crestline, you’re getting a team that also works regularly in Crestline and the surrounding mountain communities. We serve Lake Arrowhead, Muscoy, San Bernardino, and Highland too. Same live-answer phone, same written promises, same crew that knows mountain construction. Dispatch is coordinated from our Inland Empire office, but the techs you’ll see at your door live and work in the local area.
Serving Crestline, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Crestline area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Crestline
Cold air holds less moisture than warm valley air, which means smoke particles settle into wood pores and stay there instead of off-gassing. In a cabin that sat empty for weeks after a fire, the odor bonds into unsealed framing, plank walls, and subflooring, so a standard ozone treatment won’t cut it. We use thermal fogging and hydroxyl generation to drive the odor out of the wood itself. Call (855) 915-0646 for an assessment specific to your cabin’s construction.
Yes. A-frames in Crestline often have almost no crawl-in attic space, which means smoke rises into the peak and stays there. We access the ridge through gable vents or interior scuttle holes and run HEPA air scrubbers with hoses directed into the dead space. If your A-frame sits off a steep driveway, we stage equipment at the road and carry it in. Wade’s crew has done this enough times on Crestline’s steep lots that it’s routine.
Yes, and we do it regularly. If the fire department secured the scene or a neighbor reported damage, Wade can head up and board up the cabin, tarp the roof, and photograph everything for your insurance. He’ll call you from the property while he’s standing there. This keeps mountain rain and snow out until you can get here, and it usually prevents a fire damage claim from turning into a mold and rot claim. Estimates are free, and the board-up itself is straightforward work we can start the same day.
Assuming the smoke odor is surface-level and treating it with a rental ozone machine or a few cans of Kilz. In Crestline’s rough-sawn cabins, smoke penetrates deep into beams and subflooring, and the smell returns within weeks. The second mistake is not checking the attic and crawlspace after a flue fire, because that’s where the heat and smoke went first. We inspect the full structure before recommending any treatment, and we tell you what can be saved versus what genuinely should be replaced. Call (855) 915-0646 before you spend money on a fix that won’t hold.
We pack out the affected contents and run them through professional deodorization: dry-cleaning for linens and clothing, hydroxyl or ozone chambers for furniture, and ultrasonic cleaning for hard goods. The key is doing it before the odor sets into fibers permanently. If your cabin sat closed for weeks after the Line Fire or another regional burn, the sooner we get contents out and treated, the more we can save. Wade’s team documents every item for your insurance adjuster, and Wade handles that conversation directly.
If your Crestline cabin or home has fire or smoke damage, call (855) 915-0646 now. Wade answers his own phone, and he’ll tell you honestly what needs to happen and what it costs. Free estimates, written scopes, and a 90-Day Done Right Promise on every job.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of California.