Servpro Aids Clean Up
After Los Alamos Fires
By Kristine McKenzie

        When devastating fires destroyed almost 48,000 acres in New Mexico earlier this year, Servpro was there to help pick up the pieces.  Servpro is a disaster restoration and cleaning franchise system that handled the restoration effort for California Casualty in Los Alamos -- a community hit hard by the fires, where the insurance company insures more than 100 homes.  In the case of severe or large disasters, Servpro’s Catastrophic Loss Division Management Team brings together the resources of a number of franchises from throughout a region of the country.
        Because of Servpro’s size and geographic reach, the company was able to mobilize a team of 35 professionals from 11 franchise offices throughout the Southwest to help in Los Alamos.  Don Kurdy, operations manager for Servpro’s Catastrophic Loss Division, was in charge of organizing the franchisees on the Los Alamos team.  As soon as the fire was controlled, the team moved into Los Alamos, set up a temporary office and got to work.  To date, Servpro has completed roughly $500,000 of restoration work on 130 homes.

        "We were literally just doing a lot of general housecleaning," Kurdy said. "Clean is a big word in our industry."

        Because of the smoke, soot and ash in the homes in the area, dusting and washing of all the contents of the homes was necessary.  Kurdy said the situation in Los Alamos was unique in that they were dealing with higher-end homes.

        "In Los Alamos, we were literally dealing with the rocket scientists," he said.

        Kurdy said many of the homes had valuable artwork, rugs and furniture that had to be handled carefully. One home had a library of 16,000 books, which had to be cleaned off with dry sponges.  Kurdy said the logistics of regional work such as Los Alamos can be difficult. Los Alamos is an isolated community and the Servpro workers had a hard time finding lodging and getting supplies.
  Servpro’s work began in Los Alamos May 18 and the regional team was out by June 10, although the local Albuquerque franchisee is still finishing some work.   While helping put people’s lives back together is rewarding, the job of cleaning up after a disaster like the Los Alamos fires is a difficult thing to get used to, Kurdy said.

        "It is depressing to see that -- blocks of houses burned to the ground – people’s lives, basically," he said.

        Servpro has helped clean up after many disasters such as hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.  Servpro recently hit the 1,000 franchisee milestone. The company added 12 franchises in June and a total of 73 in fiscal year 1999/2000. Servpro now has 1,009 franchisees in 49 states. 

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Reprinted with the permission of Franchise Times, August 2000
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