With this summer's intense drought, there have been numerous wildfires throughout the state. Local experts are helping to restore mementos and other household items that have been affected by these fires.
When Oklahomans are affected by a wildfire, they may lose some of their most valuable belongings, leaving them heartbroken and upset, but there are some ways to restore those valuables and keep them out of harm's way.
According to the Fire, Weather, and Avalanche center, there are currently almost 30 wildfires burning through nearly 2,000 acres in Oklahoma.
These wildfires can occur at any moment, but there are some ways to make sure your most valued possessions are kept safe,
"A couple of things you can do to make sure that some of your valuable documents and keepsakes are protected from a wildfire are say with documents like certificates or vital records, keep them in a safety deposit box at your local bank," said David Gavilanes, the Regional Business Coach at Blue Kangaroo Packoutz, "If you have the opportunity to have a fire safe in your home, you might want to keep some keepsakes there let's say you're you know photo albums which can be difficult to recover any fire."
"Depending on the extent of the damage. Some contents may not be recoverable. But for those items that are, They go through a process where they're checked into the building, they get cleaned, and depending on the type of item that we recover, they'll either be sent off to say the upholstery section for cleaning or art department, hardwood cleaning, small content cleaning. Then it's scanned and put away into new clean boxes. rewrapped prepared for delivery back to the home," said Gavilanes.
The restoration process helps people through a tragic time, by giving them back a piece of their home,
"One of the parts of what we do as a recovery company is we delivered the contents back to the home and I can tell you from experience that the times that we've gone back and the customer has been able to open up their belongings and see that you know what their life was isn't entirely gone," Gavilanes said, "That's probably the most important reason you know to keep your things safe and try to have them recovered if possible.