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ServiceMaster Restore Warns Homeowners to Practice Fire Prevention Leading up to the Holiday Season

By: ServiceMaster |  0 Shares     140 Reads

ServiceMaster Experts Weigh in: Majority of House Fires Occur in December; Cooking is Leading Cause

October 09, 2014 // Franchising.com // Memphis, Tenn. – Transitioning to cooler temperatures means more time spent indoors, more home cooked meals and, unfortunately, the beginning of the most common month for house fires. ServiceMaster Restore, the leader in emergency fire and water damage cleanup and part of the ServiceMaster (NYSE: SERV) family of brands, recently polled more than 350 franchise owners across the country, revealing alarming insights about Americans' lack of preparedness when it comes to fires.

According to the 2014 ServiceMaster Restore Franchise Fire Prevention Survey, December is the most common month for house fires, with cooking as the leading cause - making one of the happiest times of the year for homeowners also among the riskiest.

Nearly all ServiceMaster Restore franchisees (97 percent) agreed that homeowners are inadequately prepared for a cooking-related fire, with 85 percent believing that most homeowners don't even own a fire extinguisher. In fact, according to 94 percent of the experts, most homeowners don't have a fire evacuation plan in place.

Homeowners are even less prepared to deal with the aftermath of a fire, making two common costly errors. According to the survey, 86 percent of ServiceMaster experts say many homeowners attempt to clean fire-damaged areas themselves, which can cause more damage to belongings; 82 percent say homeowners discard burned items without taking an inventory of the damage, which causes them to lose valuable records of their personal property.

"Over the course of more than 50 years in business, we've seen it all when it comes to house fires," says Peter Duncanson, director of disaster restoration training for ServiceMaster. "The truth is, while every situation is different, there is one constant: People are largely unprepared to prevent or manage the aftermath of a fire."

In an effort to keep families safe this holiday season, ServiceMaster Restore is providing Americans with its expert tips to ensure that this holiday season is a safe one:

Put Safety First

In the event of a fire, put safety, not your possessions, first. Assess your surroundings to judge whether it's safe to evacuate. If possible, evacuate immediately, even if it requires leaving behind important belongings.

Protect Yourself and Your Family

In the event of a fire, there is usually limited time to react. One of the best things you can do to prepare for a fire is to develop an evacuation plan and make sure everyone in your household knows exactly what that is.

Protect Your Investment

Practicing preparedness year-round is a good rule to follow. Make it a habit to review insurance policies and important homeowner documents every year, saving electronic copies in your email files so you can easily access them if the originals or hard copies are destroyed.

Assess the Damage

In most cases, the occurrence of a fire is sudden. Be sure to take every fire alarm seriously and prepare yourself to the best of your ability beforehand. If you have to evacuate, do it. If you need help during the cleanup aftermath, call a professional restoration company like ServiceMaster Restore, with the experience, training and resources to work with you and your insurance company to help restore your home. Remember that sometimes the "D-I-Y" cleanup approach following a fire can worsen the damage and lead to unnecessary expenses.

For expert tips and information on how to prevent and recover from a fire, visit ServiceMasterRestore.com. For immediate emergency fire and water damage cleanup, call a live ServiceMaster Restore operator at
1-800-RESPOND.

Survey Methodology

The 2014 ServiceMaster Restore Franchise Fire Prevention Survey presents the findings of an online survey conducted by ServiceMaster Restore from September 15-24, 2014 among a sample of 351 ServiceMaster franchise owners across the U.S. The margin of error for a sample of this size is ± 5 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence. Some numbers may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

About ServiceMaster Restore

With more than 1,800 franchised and licensed locations around the world, ServiceMaster Restore and ServiceMaster Recovery Management serve customers through a global network of franchises available 24/7/365 to provide residential and commercial restoration services resulting from damage caused by water, fire or smoke. ServiceMaster Recovery Management (SRM) is the large-scale commercial catastrophic disaster restoration unit of ServiceMaster Restore. ServiceMaster Restore and ServiceMaster Recovery Management have operation and consulting experience on countless disasters, including cleanup after Hurricane Katrina and the Pentagon after September 11, 2001. More information can be found at www.servicemasterrestore.com. ServiceMaster Restore is a business unit of the Memphis-based ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of residential and commercial services, whose brands include Terminix, American Home Shield, ServiceMaster Restore, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec.

About ServiceMaster

ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV) is a leading provider of residential and commercial services, operating through an extensive service network of more than 7,000 company-owned, franchised and licensed locations. The company's portfolio of well-recognized brands includes Terminix (termite and pest control), American Home Shield (home warranties), ServiceMaster Restore (disaster restoration), ServiceMaster Clean (janitorial), Merry Maids (residential cleaning), Furniture Medic (furniture repair) and AmeriSpec (home inspections). The company serves approximately 4 million residential and commercial customers through an employee base of approximately 13,000 company associates and a franchise network that independently employs an estimated 33,000 additional people. The company is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. Go to www.servicemaster.com for more information about ServiceMaster or follow the company at twitter.com/ServiceMaster or facebook.com/TheServiceMasterCo.

SOURCE ServiceMaster

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