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Sent by a restoration contractor, under their own name and logo. Who it is for: Facility and maintenance teams at any commercial building. When to send it: Send it as a first touch or leave it after a walk.

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EMERGENCY GUIDE

[ Your logo ]

Water Damage Response Guide

Post this where maintenance can reach it. It covers the first 24 hours of a water loss, in order.

First 15 minutes

• Get people out of the affected area. Stop the source if you can reach the valve safely. Call [Company Name] at [emergency number]. If the area is dry, photograph the scene first, then move what you can easily lift.
• Do not touch electrical panels, outlets, or equipment that are wet or that you would have to stand in water to reach.
• Do not energize anything that got wet, and that includes equipment that looks dry by the time you get to it. Kill power to it and leave it off. Switching on a wet control board turns a cleanable loss into a replacement.

First 30 minutes

• Contain the water if you can do so safely. It spreads fast, so check adjacent rooms and the floor below.
• Photograph first, then notify your insurance carrier to open the claim before cleanup begins.
• If the electrical panel can be reached from a dry spot, shut off power to the affected area; if not, call your utility or a licensed electrician.
• If you smell gas or the water has reached gas-fired equipment or the water heater, do not operate any switch or panel, leave the area, and call your gas utility and 911 from outside; do not turn gas service back on yourself. Only the utility restores it.

First 60 minutes

• Keep the area clear and leave extraction and drying to your restoration partner, who confirms the water's source and category first.
• If the water is dirty (sewage, roof or ground water) or it reached the air handler, ductwork or return grilles, shut off the HVAC serving that area and leave it off until it has been checked. If it is a clean supply-line leak that never touched the system, leave the settings as they are and tell us at dispatch.
• Do not run fans or blowers on the water. If it came from a drain, a cooling tower or a sewage line, moving air can spread contamination through the building.

Hours 2 to 24