24 HOURS · THE EAST BAY

Fire and smoke damage in the East Bay

SOS Restoration of East Bay works a fire from board-up to final coat, hills or flats. We secure the openings, dry what the hoses left, strip the soot and smell, then rebuild. Soot travels far past the burn. Looking is free. Call (341) 220-0032.

A hooded technician beside an old board wall with equipment at floor level in the East Bay
Two counties. One crew. No waiting.

Somebody answers and a van leaves. Looking is on us. CSLB #1131134 · IICRC #70194273

Someone always answers

and the van is loaded before the call ends

Six services

the whole arc, from the first hour to the last coat

25 cities

across Alameda and Contra Costa counties

CSLB #1131134

IICRC #70194273

Where does the work start?

Board the openings first, then dry what the hoses soaked.

A fire is a soaking too, courtesy of the hoses. If the framing stays wet, mold sets in over the char. So we dry to a number first, like any water call.

Why does the smell keep returning?

The smell soaks into the material, not the air you spray.

Wipe it down and it fades a day, then a warm afternoon wakes it. Soot is greasy and acid; paint laid on it bleeds back. It comes off, or it lingers.

The hills worry me. Are you ready for that?

Yes; the East Bay hills carry real wildfire history.

The 1991 Oakland hills firestorm is the reference here, and Diablo winds still drive the risk each fall. A fire on a slope leaves soot and hose water on tight, hard-to-reach lots. We work them.

Which cities do you reach?

Oakland and the twenty-four cities around it.

The crew runs to Berkeley, Richmond and up to Walnut Creek. Smoke crosses a property line as easily as a city one.

Who builds the rooms back?

The crew that cleared the soot, on one license.

No outsider steps in halfway. The crew that pulled the smell also builds the rooms back. Ask the dispatcher how the halves join.

Is a burned hill lot a different job?

Very. The 1991 Tunnel Fire took 3,280 homes above Oakland and Berkeley.

On those slopes the rebuild answers to access, grade and defensible space before it answers to finishes. The drying half looks ordinary; the second half does not.

Soot indoors and nothing burned?

Richmond and Martinez are refinery towns, and that happens here.

The Martinez refinery event on the first of February put material into houses that never caught fire. Photograph it before anybody wipes a surface.

When does smoke not earn a crew?

A scorched pan lid and a marked ceiling wash off with a sponge.

Cleaning earns its price once the smell has reached framing or ductwork. Nothing painted over that survives the first warm afternoon. A scorched pan and a smell gone by morning does not need us.

What does fire work cost?

Free to look; emergency fire work starts at $90 an hour.

The rate sheet holds every figure on one page. Our record becomes the insurance claim, and the burned rooms end in a rebuild.

Water damage

Water damage restoration across the East Bay, any hour: extraction, structural drying, daily readings, and the right water agency named among five. Call (341) 220-0032.

Mold

Mold removal in an old East Bay house: bay damp, lead-paint-era plaster sampled before it opens, and the water source cut first. Call (341) 220-0032.

Storm damage

Storm and debris cleanup in the East Bay: wet winters, hill runoff and mud, and water in behind an aging roof, dried to a reading. Call (341) 220-0032, any hour.

Sewage cleanup

Sewage cleanup in the East Bay to the S500 standard: category-three water, the right agency named among several, and the porous material out. Call (341) 220-0032.

Reconstruction

Rebuild and reconstruction in the East Bay: the crew that dried the house frames, boards, paints and finishes it, under CSLB #1131134. Call (341) 220-0032.

Reconstruction

Rebuild and reconstruction in the East Bay: the crew that dried the house frames, boards, paints and finishes it, under CSLB #1131134. Call (341) 220-0032.

The cities we drive to for this work

The hills from Richmond down to Fremont burn on the dry-wind days, and the smoke drops into flatland neighborhoods that never saw a flame. That is why this list runs the whole East Bay and not one canyon.

Rather write it than talk? Leave it here and we call you back.

The number is the part that matters. The rest just tells us which crew to send and how far up the road they are going.

Soot turns more corrosive by the hour, so day one matters most. Call (341) 220-0032 the hour the fire is out.

© 2026 SOS Restoration of East Bay · 409 13th St #305, Oakland, CA 94612 · Alameda and Contra Costa counties · CSLB #1131134 · IICRC #70194273 · Guides · About · Contact