Help! Smoke damage to cameras and lenses!

We had a house fire on Friday and all my camera equipment was subject to severe smoke damage.

Although they LOOK fine, they stink like ...

Has anyone had a similar experience? Can the lenses and camera be treated/cleaned/? to get rid of the stink?

My FA*300 cry, cry, cry... My DFA 2.8/100 macrcry, cry, cry and so on and so on... Recently acquired and not added to my policy...

All assistance and advice appreciated.

Do you have home owners insurance? You probably will pay one dedcutible for all damage.

I would think you should be able to have the cost of this covered too. You could have them cleaned by a repair shop.
--

'I got a Pentax camera. I love to take a photograph, so mama don't take my Photoshop away.'

Tom, that's awful! I hope you didn't lose much and you'll be able to get back to normal soon. I'm afriad I haven't a clue what you can do about smoky photographic equipment, I hope you can rescue them all. Best of luck. I think I'll go check out my insurance policy now...
Julie

Tom Lusk said:

We had a house fire on Friday and all my camera equipment was
subject to severe smoke damage.

Click to expand...

First of all, everybody safe??????

Tom Lusk said:

Although they LOOK fine, they stink like ...

Click to expand...

Well, pics don't smell...(sounds harsh but read on please)

Tom Lusk said:

Has anyone had a similar experience? Can the lenses and camera be
treated/cleaned/? to get rid of the stink?
My FA*300 cry, cry, cry... My DFA 2.8/100 macrcry, cry, cry and so
on and so on... Recently acquired and not added to my policy...

Click to expand...

Still check your policy, you never know, people have been known to pay extra to cover extra items only to find out they were already insured as long as whatever happens happens in house .

And I am not sure if smoke really damages the camera. It all depends on the type of fire, what was burning... certain kind of plastics are known to release gasses like HCl (Hydrocloric acid) and I am not sure but could imagine that being harmfull. But then again, how long was it exposed?

But I am sure items can be cleaned. They are even able to clean and repair computers after a fire (with water damage, must be diffrent story when the computer was on imagine)

Tom Lusk said:

All assistance and advice appreciated.

Click to expand...

Ummm, any pics?
--
janneman
http://www.pbase.com/jl2

Also, I have the extended warenty from Ritz, and it'll cover everything EXCEPT fire/smoke damage. Why?

--

Camera-carrying member of the Pentax Club, with *ist DL, 18-55 kit, smc 50 f/2, JCPenny 70-210 w/ vivitar 2X converter, AF200s flash, 16 AA's, 1Gig 133X speed card.

Yes, I carry all of that. Everywhere.

Ralph E Napier said:

Also, I have the extended warenty from Ritz, and it'll cover
everything EXCEPT fire/smoke damage. Why?

Click to expand...

Obvious. Not a camera failure. That's what Home owners and Automobile insurance is for.

Ralph E Napier said:

--
Camera-carrying member of the Pentax Club, with *ist DL, 18-55 kit,
smc 50 f/2, JCPenny 70-210 w/ vivitar 2X converter, AF200s flash,
16 AA's, 1Gig 133X speed card.

Yes, I carry all of that. Everywhere.

Click to expand...

--

'I got a Pentax camera. I love to take a photograph, so mama don't take my Photoshop away.'

Tom,

I hope you and yours are ok, anybody get smoke inhalation problems?

If you email me I might be able to help.

Nic
[email protected]

Tom Lusk said:

We had a house fire on Friday and all my camera equipment was
subject to severe smoke damage.

Although they LOOK fine, they stink like ...

Has anyone had a similar experience? Can the lenses and camera be
treated/cleaned/? to get rid of the stink?

My FA*300 cry, cry, cry... My DFA 2.8/100 macrcry, cry, cry and so
on and so on... Recently acquired and not added to my policy...

All assistance and advice appreciated.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies, guys (and Julie).

Everyone got out all right, even the dog. I was coughing up black cr*p all night, but am OK now.

The house will not be habitable for approx. three months.

The smoke was mainly from burning ABS pipes and the house was filled for approx. three hours.

My insurance broker is checking to see if all my camera equipment is covered. Everything else that has plastic in it (which is practically everything nowadays- TV's, computers,stereos, etc. will be scrapped. Big mess.

All that stuff is covered for full replacement value. Hopefully the camera equipment is too.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

Tom Lusk said:

Thanks for the replies, guys (and Julie).

Everyone got out all right, even the dog. I was coughing up black
cr*p all night, but am OK now.

The house will not be habitable for approx. three months.

The smoke was mainly from burning ABS pipes and the house was
filled for approx. three hours.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but that is bad smoke.... Indeed have camera checked.

Tom Lusk said:

My insurance broker is checking to see if all my camera equipment
is covered. Everything else that has plastic in it (which is
practically everything nowadays- TV's, computers,stereos, etc. will
be scrapped. Big mess.

Click to expand...

I hope they will recover your precious pics a from the computer

Tom Lusk said:

All that stuff is covered for full replacement value. Hopefully the
camera equipment is too.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

--
janneman
http://www.pbase.com/jl2

Tom Lusk said:

We had a house fire on Friday and all my camera equipment was
subject to severe smoke damage.

Although they LOOK fine, they stink like ...

Has anyone had a similar experience? Can the lenses and camera be
treated/cleaned/? to get rid of the stink?

My FA*300 cry, cry, cry... My DFA 2.8/100 macrcry, cry, cry and so
on and so on... Recently acquired and not added to my policy...

All assistance and advice appreciated.

Click to expand...

ozone is used to get rid of odours, but it can be harmful to some materials, and humans! handle with care...

sorry to hear about your troubles and glad everybody is OK.

The smoke will have contained a huge variety of different combustion products, including dioxins, which are toxic. Some of them will also be corrosive or act as solvents so treatment should begin as soon as possible. Much will depend on how exposed the equipment was to the smoke. If it was out on display like your TV etc it may be scrap but if it was in your camera bag it might fare better.

Contact Pentax service directly for advice.

--
Steve

http://www.pbase.com/steephill

Tom Lusk said:

We had a house fire on Friday and all my camera equipment was
subject to severe smoke damage.

Although they LOOK fine, they stink like ...

Has anyone had a similar experience? Can the lenses and camera be
treated/cleaned/? to get rid of the stink?

My FA*300 cry, cry, cry... My DFA 2.8/100 macrcry, cry, cry and so
on and so on... Recently acquired and not added to my policy...

All assistance and advice appreciated.

Click to expand...

First thing, check with whomever holds your homeowner's policy. We had a house fire about 3-1/2 years ago, and I lost--to fire, smoke and water--a slew of camera gear. State Farm covered every bit of it, without question, at projected current prices for replacement gear (it was all film gear, and I had already switched over for most things, so this stuff was in the basement, in storage, right near where the fire started).

So check with your insurance company.
--
Charlie Self
http://www.charlieselfonline.com