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Published 2026-09-14 by Unified Public Advocacy · Part of the Fire Loss Resource Hub

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Do not go back inside until the fire department tells you the building is safe to enter. Once you and everyone in the household are accounted for and somewhere safe, the next four things are: contact a disaster relief organization for immediate shelter, food and clothing; report the fire to your insurance company; tell your mortgage company or landlord; and start keeping every receipt for money you spend because of the fire.
Nothing else on this page is more urgent than those. Everything after them is about not losing evidence and money you are entitled to.
  • Do not re-enter until the fire department says it is safe.
  • Do not turn utilities back on yourself if firefighters shut them off.
  • Call your insurer and ask what to do first — including how to secure the property.
  • Start a receipt file today. Hotel, meals, clothing, emergency repairs, everything.
  • Do not throw anything away yet, no matter how ruined it looks.

Why you cannot go back in yet

A house that has stopped burning is not a safe house. To stop the fire spreading and to clear the smoke, firefighters commonly break windows and cut holes in the roof and walls — which means the structure you are looking at has been deliberately opened up. Ceilings that absorbed water are heavy and can come down. Floors that look intact can be burned through underneath.
The soot and the water left behind are their own hazard. The U.S. Fire Administration is direct about this: the residue left after a fire may contain things that can make you sick, and you should be very careful about entering the building or handling fire-damaged items at all.
The fire department checks whether water, electricity and gas are safe. If they are not, firefighters will have them turned off or disconnected before they leave — and you should not try to turn them back on yourself. That is a job for the utility or a licensed trade.

Where you sleep tonight

Contact a local disaster relief service — the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the two most people reach first. They help with immediate food, clothing, medicine and a place to stay, and they do it without waiting for an insurance decision.
If you have insurance, your policy may also pay the extra costs of living somewhere else while the home is unlivable. That coverage is usually called Additional Living Expenses, or loss of use. It is reimbursed based on what you can prove, so the receipts start mattering immediately — including tonight.

Reporting the fire to your insurance company

Call your insurance company or agent as soon as you reasonably can and ask them what to do first. Two questions matter more than the rest on that first call: what should you do to keep the property safe until it can be repaired, and who should you talk to about cleaning up.
If the insurer recommends a restoration or contents-cleaning company, ask in writing who is paying for it and ask for a cost estimate in writing before work starts. Ask the same question about anything anyone offers to do at the property in the first week.
Write down the name and phone number of every person you speak to, and ask for your claim number on that first call. You will use that list constantly over the following months.
  • Your claim or reference number, and the adjuster assigned to you.
  • What your deductible is, and whether more than one deductible applies.
  • Whether the policy covers hotel and other living costs — for how much, and for how long.
  • How long you have to file, and what the company needs from you next.
  • What you are authorized to do now to prevent further damage.

Secure the property — but do not repair it yet

There is an important line here, and getting it wrong is expensive in both directions.
You are generally expected to prevent further damage: boarding broken windows and doors, tarping an opened roof, clearing hazards. Do that, and save every receipt for it.
You should not make permanent repairs before talking to your insurer. The NAIC puts it plainly in its consumer guide: your company may not pay for repairs it did not authorize. A rebuilt wall is also destroyed evidence — once it is gone, nobody can go back and measure what was behind it.
If the house will be standing empty, tell your local police department that the site will be vacant.

Do not throw anything away

This is the single most common irreversible mistake after a fire, and it usually happens with good intentions during the first cleanup push.
The American Red Cross guidance is explicit: do not discard damaged goods until an inventory has been taken. A destroyed sofa that nobody photographed and nobody listed is very hard to get paid for. Ruined items are the evidence for the contents half of your claim.
There is one exception the same guidance carves out, for health rather than for the claim: throw away food, beverages and medicine that were exposed to heat, smoke or soot. Photograph them first if you can, and note what you discarded and why.

The money and the paperwork

Tell your mortgage company or your landlord that the fire happened. If you have a mortgage, your lender has a direct financial interest in the property and will be involved in how the insurance money is handled later — starting that conversation early avoids a surprise when the first large check arrives with the lender named on it.
Report credit cards lost in the fire to the issuers. Then begin the slower job of replacing documents: drivers licenses, titles and deeds, insurance policies, passports, birth and marriage certificates, Social Security or Medicare cards, wills, medical records, warranties and tax records.
Money damaged by fire can often be replaced. Handle burned bills as little as possible, and place each one in plastic wrap to hold it together. If half or more of a bill is intact, a regional Federal Reserve Bank can generally replace it — ask your own bank which one serves you — and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing accepts mutilated currency claims directly.

Write down the facts of the fire while they are fresh

The U.S. Fire Administration puts a fill-in form at the back of its After the Fire booklet for exactly this reason. These details are easy to collect in the first days and irritating to reconstruct six months later, when the claim needs them.
  • Date, time and location of the fire.
  • Name, address and non-emergency number of the responding fire department.
  • The fire incident report number.
  • The name of the fire marshal or fire investigator, if one attended.
  • Your insurance company, its claims phone number, and your policy number.
  • The VIN of any vehicle destroyed.

Questions worth asking in the first week

  • What am I authorized to do right now to prevent further damage, and how do I submit those costs?
  • Does my policy pay additional living expenses, and is there a dollar limit or a time limit?
  • Who is my adjuster, and when will they inspect?
  • What do you need from me before the inspection?
  • Is anything in my policy time-sensitive that I should know about today?

Mistakes that cost people money

  • Clearing out ruined contents before anyone has photographed or listed them. The items are the proof; once they are at the curb the proof is gone.
  • Starting permanent repairs before the insurer has seen the damage or authorized the work.
  • Not keeping receipts in the first week, on the assumption that the small things do not count. Additional Living Expenses are reimbursed from receipts, and the first week is usually the most expensive one.
  • Accepting verbal promises about who is paying for emergency cleaning or board-up. Get it in writing.
  • Losing track of who said what. Names, dates and claim numbers from day one are worth more than they look.

Related on this site

Sources

The factual statements on this page about insurance claim practice, fire recovery and mortgage handling come from the primary sources below. Where something depends on your specific policy or on the law in your state, this page says so rather than generalizing.

Keep reading

Evidence to Preserve →
Documenting a Fire Insurance Claim →
Temporary Housing and Living Expenses →
The Claim Process, Step by Step →
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What to Do After a House Fire — questions people ask

When can I go back into the house after a fire?

When the fire department tells you it is safe. Fire-damaged buildings can have weakened floors and ceilings, damaged wiring, and soot and water residue that is a health hazard, so re-entry is not a judgment call to make from the curb. If you do go in, go carefully, and do not turn utilities back on yourself if firefighters shut them off.

Should I call my insurance company before or after I start cleaning up?

Before. Call as soon as you reasonably can and ask what to do first, including what you should do to secure the property and who to talk to about cleanup. You are generally expected to prevent further damage, but permanent repairs made before the insurer has authorized them may not be paid for, and cleanup done before the damage is documented destroys the evidence your claim runs on.

What receipts should I be keeping?

All of them, starting immediately. Hotel or rental costs, meals, clothing, pet boarding, storage, transportation, emergency board-up and tarping, and anything else you are spending because of the fire. The U.S. Fire Administration notes these may be needed by the insurance company and to prove losses claimed on your income tax return.

Can I throw away things that are obviously destroyed?

Not yet. American Red Cross guidance is to hold damaged goods until an inventory has been taken, because those items are the proof behind the contents part of your claim. The exception is food, drink and medicine exposed to heat, smoke or soot, which should be discarded for health reasons — photograph and note those before they go.

What if I do not have insurance?

Community and relief organizations are still the right first call: the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, religious organizations, public agencies such as the health department, your state or municipal emergency services office, and non-profit crisis-counseling centers. The U.S. Fire Administration lists these as the places uninsured households turn to first.