Planning tools for before and after a fire in El Paso County
These planning tools are meant to be printed, filled in and carried around the house. Some are for the months before wildfire season, such as a home inventory and a prep timeline. Others are for the weeks after, such as smoke inspection lists, insurer questions and the choice between cleaning in place and packing out.
- Home inventory checklist: record it before fire season The households that recover fastest after a fire are often the ones who can show what they had. An hour with a phone camera each spring, before the windy season and summer fire risk peak, makes a contents claim far easier.
- Smoke inspection checklist for a house that survived a nearby fire Use this checklist to walk your house after a nearby wildfire, before deciding how much cleaning it needs. Mark each item, photograph anything you check, and bring the results to your insurer or a restoration contractor.
- Questions to ask your insurer about a wildfire smoke claim Smoke-only claims can be harder than fire claims, because the damage is less visible. These questions help you learn what your policy covers, what the insurer needs from you, and how disagreements get resolved.
- Wildfire glossary: the words you'll hear before, during and after Evacuation notices, fire reports, insurance letters and cleanup estimates all use their own vocabulary. This glossary collects the wildfire-related terms most likely to come up for homeowners and renters in the Pikes Peak region.
- Wildfire prep through the year for foothill homes Wildfire readiness is a set of small jobs spread across the year, not one big weekend. This calendar fits those jobs to the Colorado Springs climate, where windy, dry spells can come in winter and spring as well as summer.
- Scope factors: why one smoke cleanup is small and another is large Two houses on the same street can need very different smoke cleanups after a wildfire. This table of factors helps you understand an estimate, compare two of them, and spot items that seem missing or inflated.
- Do it yourself or hire it out: sorting smoke cleanup tasks Light smoke from a distant fire is often a do-it-yourself job. Heavy residue, attics and ducts usually aren't. Many Colorado Springs households end up somewhere in between, doing some tasks themselves and hiring out the rest.
- Choosing a restoration contractor when everyone is suddenly in town Big wildfires bring a wave of restoration and roofing contractors to the Pikes Peak region, some from the Denver area and some from far away. Many do good work. A short vetting process helps you tell who will still be reachable when the job is done.
- Pack-out or clean in place: deciding what happens to your belongings After a fire or heavy smoke, contents either get cleaned where they sit or boxed up and moved out for cleaning and storage. Each has trade-offs for time, control and your claim. This guide walks through the choice.