Fast, Reliable Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Across Highland
Fire damage in Highland is never just about the flames. It’s the soot that works its way into drywall, the smoke odor that settles into forty-year-old insulation, and in this particular city, the mountain-front conditions that can turn a house fire into a compound contamination event. We’re Wade’s Restoration of California, and we’ve been handling fire and smoke jobs across the 92346 zip code long enough to know exactly what Highland homes are up against. When you call (855) 915-0646, you’ll reach a live person who can get a crew rolling toward your street right away.
Here’s the thing most people don’t realize until they’re standing in the middle of it: fire restoration in Highland requires treating every job as both smoke cleanup and flood remediation. The city sits directly at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains on alluvial fans, so when post-wildfire debris flows come down out of the hills, they carry ash, silt, and combustion byproducts into garages, low-sill entries, and wall cavities. That’s not something a generic restoration playbook handles. Ours does.
Why Wade’s Restoration of California Is Highland’s Preferred Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Company
Wade Ferris started this company in 2007 with a simple idea: put his name on the truck, publish his address, and answer his own phone. That’s still how we run things in Highland. You’re not getting a call center in another state. You’re getting Wade and the crew he personally trained. When a Highland homeowner calls at 2 a.m. because smoke is still moving through the house after a grease fire, the person who picks up is the same person who will be standing in your kitchen an hour later.
We get recommended by neighbors. That’s not marketing talk; that’s how business actually works in Highland. You’ll find us running into past customers at the grocery store on Highland Avenue or at the park off Baseline, and if the job wasn’t done right, we hear about it face to face. We’re fine with that. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every fire restoration contract: if it’s not right, we come back and make it right. That’s the whole arrangement.
Our response time to Highland is measured in minutes, not days. Crews stage from the Inland Empire office and serve Highland locally, which means board-up and tarping can happen before the next wind event moves through. In Santa Ana season, that speed matters. A roof that lost shingles to the same wind that carried fire embers will let rain in by morning if it’s not covered.
Wade is IICRC-certified and RIA-affiliated. His crew runs Dri-Eaz air scrubbers and Phoenix dehumidifiers, and every tech is background-checked and uniformed. You’ll know who’s in your home.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Services in Highland
Smoke & Soot Removal in Highland
Highland’s 1970s to 1990s tract homes were built fast, and that means original drywall with no air sealing and wall cavities that act like chimneys for smoke. Soot doesn’t just sit on the surface here. It goes lateral. We see it in the homes along the mountain-facing streets of 92346 all the time: a small kitchen fire leaves a thin gray film on every surface in the living room because the smoke wicked through interior wall gaps. Standard wipe-downs miss that. We use HEPA vacuuming followed by chem-sponge treatment on every affected surface, then verify with a bright-light inspection.
Odor Removal & Deodorization in Highland
Smoke odor in Highland homes almost always lives behind the drywall. In the flatter central areas, older homes still have original insulation that soaks up combustion byproducts like a sponge. After a fire in a 1980s tract home off Highland Avenue, our crew found smoke had wicked into the original drywall and settled in wall cavities where the forty-year-old insulation trapped every bit of it. We ran HEPA air scrubbers and thermal fogging with our Dri-Eaz equipment, then pulled and re-insulated the affected bays before sealing with a stain-blocking primer. Standard extraction alone would have left the odor embedded.
Emergency Board-Up & Tarping in Highland
Santa Ana winds hit Highland harder than the flatlands west of town. When a fire takes out windows or a section of roof, those same winds will keep working the opening all night. We board up and tarp fast because the damage multiplies every hour a home stays exposed. For homes on the mountain-facing streets, especially anything with original roof decking, a polyethylene tarp with battens is the difference between smoke damage only and a full secondary water intrusion.
Contents Cleaning & Pack-Out in Highland
Everything you own is covered in ash or soot after a fire. Highland homes near the burn-scar flood zones have an added problem: the ash carries hydrophobic residue and combustion byproducts from the hillside burns, which means standard laundering won’t cut it. We inventory, pack out, and clean contents off-site using ultrasonic and HEPA-rated equipment. Then we store them in a climate-controlled facility until the structure is ready. You get a written inventory with photos, so there’s no mystery about what left your house and what came back.
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 Highland
We work on every major brand of restoration-relevant building system found in Highland’s tract homes, from the original 1970s drywall assemblies to 1990s engineered trusses and everything between. Wade stocks the professional-grade gear that matters: Dri-Eaz air movers and scrubbers, Phoenix dehumidifiers, and injection-drying systems from Injectidry. For Highland customers, that means faster turnaround, because we’re not waiting on equipment from a warehouse in another state. Our techs are IICRC-certified and train on this equipment year-round.
Common Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Problems We See in Highland Homes
- HEPA air scrubbing got skipped after ash-and-mud intrusion. Crews that don’t understand the mountain-front debris flow risk will treat a post-burn-scar flood like any other water job. The silty, hydrophobic residue left behind carries combustion byproducts from the hillside burns. Weeks later, the smoke odor comes back because it was never actually removed from the wall cavities.
- Standard water extraction on post-burn-scar flooding leaves mud behind. That fine, oily mud coats slab-on-grade foundations and wicks into original drywall. In Highland’s 1970s and 1980s homes, the drywall sits directly on the slab in many places. The mud gets in there, hides, and then feeds mold colonies you can’t see.
- Santa Ana wind-driven roof failures hide secondary water damage. After a fire, the storm that follows can push rain through damaged roof covering and into the wall assembly. Highland’s mountain-front position intensifies these winds. Crews that never check for moisture behind original drywall miss a whole second loss that gets mistaken for lingering smoke smell.
- Older insulation traps smoke odor and nobody replaces it. Homes in central Highland built before 1990 often still have original fiberglass batts in the walls. Once smoke gets into those batts, no amount of surface cleaning removes the odor. The insulation has to be pulled, the bays cleaned and sealed, and new insulation put in. We see this constantly.
Pricing for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Highland, CA
Here’s what we actually charge in Highland, based on the work we’ve done across the 92346 zip code.
- Smoke & soot removal (walls, ceilings, trim, flooring prep): $900 to $2,800 depending on square footage and how far the smoke wicked into cavities.
- Odor removal & deodorization (thermal fogging plus HEPA air scrubbing): $600 to $1,500, more if insulation needs to be pulled and replaced.
- Emergency board-up & tarping: $400 to $1,000 for windows, doors, and roof sections, depending on access and wind exposure.
- Contents cleaning & pack-out: $1,500 to $6,000 based on volume; off-site storage and climate-controlled handling add to that.
- Structural fire repair (drywall replacement, insulation, framing, painting): $2,000 to $12,000, scoped and priced in writing like a remodel.
What drives cost upward is hidden moisture and smoke in wall cavities. That’s why our free estimate includes a cavity inspection, not just a surface look. Call (855) 915-0646 for a written scope and exact numbers.
We Also Serve Cities Near Highland
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration team goes anywhere the mountain front and flatlands meet. We serve Highland plus San Bernardino, Muscoy, Redlands, and Loma Linda. If you’re just outside the 92346 line, call anyway. No trip charge inside our own county.
Serving Highland, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Highland 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 Highland
Your home wasn’t just exposed to its own fire; it was exposed to whatever the mountains sent down after the burn. Ash and mud from hillside debris flows carry combustion byproducts that settle in wall cavities and on slab foundations. We treat every Highland job as both soot cleanup and hazmat flood remediation. That means HEPA air scrubbing, cavity drying, and decontamination that a standard fire cleanup crew will skip, because their checklist doesn’t include a debris flow.
The odor is in the insulation and the unfaced drywall, not on the surfaces. Homes built from the 1970s to 1990s in Highland often have original fiberglass batts in the walls, and smoke moves into those batts and stays. Surface cleaning removes the visible soot, but the thermal fogging and insulation remediation are what actually kill the smell. If the insulation isn’t addressed, the odor will come back within weeks. Call (855) 915-0646 and we’ll inspect the cavities, not just the paint.
Yes, and it’s the most common thing we find that the homeowner never saw coming. Fire suppression water soaks the drywall, and on a slab-on-grade foundation, that water has nowhere to go but laterally into the wall assembly. In Highland’s older tract homes, the drywall often sits directly on the slab, so the lower wall cavities absorb the water and hold it. If it’s not dried properly with an injection system, mold follows. We check every affected wall with moisture meters before we call the fire cleanup done.
Board-up comes first, that same day. The winds off the San Bernardino Mountains will keep working any opening in your home, and if rain is behind the front, you’ll have water intrusion inside hours. We get windows and doors sealed with plywood or polycarbonate, then tarp any roof breaches. Only after the envelope is closed do we start the interior smoke and soot work. That order matters; doing it backwards doubles the damage.
We inventory every affected item, photograph it, pack it out, and clean it off-site with ultrasonic and HEPA-rated equipment. Highland homes in the burn-scar zones often have ash that’s hydrophobic and loaded with combustion byproducts, so standard laundering in a garage won’t get it out. We match the cleaning method to the material, then store everything in climate-controlled space until your house is ready. You get a written list of what left and what came back, so there’s no fight with the adjuster later. Call (855) 915-0646 for a free contents assessment.
Written by the team at Wade’s Restoration of California.