The 72 hours after a wildfire define the loss
Commercial property owners in BC and Alberta now treat wildfire risk as an annual operating concern, not a tail risk. The Lytton, Jasper, and West Kelowna events compressed entire commercial districts into total-loss claims, and the smoke-damage radius routinely covers 50-100 km beyond the burn perimeter. What happens in the first 72 hours after the all-clear determines whether the building is salvageable, what the insurer will cover, and how quickly tenants can return.
This is the sequence Deconstructors uses to walk property owners through the remediation phase, written from the field rather than from a checklist.
Hour 0-24: secure and document
The first call is to the insurer to open the claim — even before you know the scope. The second call is to a board-up and site-security contractor; smoke-damaged buildings get broken into within the first week if left visibly empty. The third call is to a remediation contractor (not your usual maintenance contractor — wildfire damage is its own discipline involving structural soot, drywall absorption, and HVAC contamination).
Before anyone walks the building beyond the lobby, take 200+ photos. Every wall, every HVAC vent, every utility room, every roof penetration. The insurance adjuster will arrive 5-14 days later, by which point salvage decisions will have been made. Your photos are the only record of original-state damage.
Hour 24-72: scope the remediation, not the rebuild
There’s a strong owner instinct to start tearing things out immediately. Resist it. Remediation contractors and adjusters need to scope the work together, and any premature demolition becomes a coverage dispute. The proper sequence is:
- Site assessment by a certified IICRC FSRT (fire and smoke restoration) technician
- Air quality and surface contamination sampling — get baseline data before remediation starts
- Structural assessment if there was any flame contact, partial collapse, or extended heat exposure
- HVAC system inspection — ductwork is the silent killer of post-wildfire claims because contaminated systems can re-distribute soot for years
The scoping document should categorize damage by zone (charred / heavy smoke / light smoke / odour-only) because each zone has a different remediation protocol and a different price.
What “smoke damage” actually means at a commercial scale
For a commercial building, smoke damage is rarely the visible black soot. It’s:
- Acidic residues etching glass and metal surfaces (irreversible after 30-60 days)
- Drywall absorbing volatile organics — full removal usually beats sealing for tenant air quality
- Concrete and masonry absorbing odour-bearing compounds — these need specialty cleaning
- HVAC ductwork holding soot in horizontal runs and re-emitting it on every cycle
- Insulation in walls and ceilings — often a full replacement because cleaning cost approaches new-install cost
The owners who get burned twice are the ones who repaint over smoke-damaged drywall to reopen quickly, then face tenant complaints, indoor-air-quality complaints, and re-do costs 6-12 months later.
Selective deconstruction beats full demolition for most commercial losses
When the building envelope is intact but interior systems are contaminated, selective deconstruction — pulling drywall, insulation, ductwork, and finishes while preserving the structure, slab, and exterior — is usually 30-50% cheaper than rebuild. It’s also faster, because the structural permit isn’t in play. Deconstructors’ approach to these jobs salvages copper, steel, and timber where possible, which offsets disposal costs by 5-15%.
Insurance coordination — the underrated lever
Most commercial policies pay for “remediation to pre-loss condition” but require itemized scope agreement. The owners who recover fastest:
- Communicate weekly with the insurer through a single point of contact
- Submit incremental progress invoices rather than a lump-sum at completion
- Have the remediation contractor produce a daily log with photos for adjuster review
- Get sign-off on each phase before starting the next
This sequence sounds bureaucratic — it is — but it shortens claim cycles from 9-14 months to 4-6 months. The math on a vacant commercial building at $30,000-$80,000/month in carrying cost makes the discipline worth it.
When to start remediation versus when to demolish
The decision rule we use with property owners: if structural damage exceeds 30% of the building footprint, OR if smoke damage covers >70% of interior volume with no clean zone to stage from, full demolition and rebuild often beats remediation on net cost and timeline. Below those thresholds, selective remediation wins. The assessment to make that call takes 4-7 days and should not be rushed.
A note on community-scale events
When a wildfire affects multiple commercial properties in the same area (downtown West Kelowna, the Lytton commercial strip, parts of Slave Lake), contractor capacity becomes the binding constraint. Owners who secure a remediation contract in the first 10 days move first; those who wait 30 days face 6-12 month queues. This is not about price — it’s about not being last in line.
Deconstructors operates from Vancouver Island and the Calgary area with mobile crews available across BC, AB, SK, MB, and YT. For wildfire-related commercial property remediation, contact us at (250) 419-5488 or estimating@deconstructors.ca for a same-week site assessment.
