Water damage drying
Fire & smoke cleanup
Mold remediation
Storm response
Sewage cleanup
ReconstructionFree visual inspection and a written scope of work before any mitigation begins - photos, moisture readings, and drying logs go in your claim file
The scope we write is the scope we bill. Anything new gets shown to you, in writing, before we touch it.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable Fire Damage Restoration Across Fontana
Fire damage restoration in Fontana typically costs between $3,200 and $18,000 depending on the size of the fire, how far smoke traveled, and what structural materials were affected. Our crews coordinate dispatch from the Inland Empire office and reach most Fontana neighborhoods within 45 to 90 minutes for emergency board-up and smoke containment. When the Fontana wind pushes embers into an attic vent three blocks from the foothills, or a kitchen fire leaves soot coating every open room in a slab-on-grade tract home, you don’t need a generic checklist. You need someone who knows exactly how Fontana homes are built, how they burn, and how they dry. Call (341) 212-7342 and you’ll reach a live person, day or night.
Why Tidemark Water Damage Riverside Is Fontana’s Preferred Fire Damage Restoration Company
We’re not a franchise that flies in a crew from two counties away. Our technicians live and work in the Inland Empire, and they spend their days driving the same streets Fontana residents do: up Sierra Avenue, past the 210 and 15 interchanges, into the neighborhoods that spread out toward Rancho Cucamonga and Rialto. That matters when a fire happens, because it means we arrive knowing the housing stock already. The repetitive slab-on-grade layouts we see in Fontana homes built between 1980 and 2005 mean smoke travels in predictable paths: through open floor plans, up HVAC returns, into the attic, and across shared wall cavities in stucco exteriors. We know those paths before we walk the door.
Rick Sumner has built this team around a simple idea. You see a written price before we open a single wall. You see a photo of the clean-up before the crew pulls out of your driveway. Every technician is background-checked, uniformed, IICRC-, RIA-, and IFA-credentialed, and every job is backed by our 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the restoration isn’t done right, we make it right. Fontana homeowners tell us that’s the part they trust most.
Restoration work we handle






Smoke Damage Restoration in Fontana
Smoke damage restoration in Fontana is the process of removing soot residue, neutralizing odor, and sealing surfaces after smoke has traveled through a home. In Fontana, smoke damage restoration typically runs between $2,800 and $7,500 depending on square footage and how many rooms were affected. Homeowners along the northern edge of the city, near the foothills and the Cajon Pass corridor, call us most often for this because the Fontana wind carries ember smoke and soot into homes that never saw flames. A living room carpet three miles from a wildfire still holds that acrid smell.
Whole-Home Soot Removal
Soot doesn’t settle where the fire was. It settles where the air carried it, which in Fontana’s open floor plan tract homes means nearly every room. Our crew wipes down horizontal surfaces, cleans walls with soot sponges, and runs HEPA air scrubbers from XPOWER through the living space to pull particles out of the air, not just move them around.
Odor Neutralization for Attics and HVAC
Smoke odor will keep returning if it’s trapped in attic insulation or interior ductwork. We inspect the HVAC system carefully because Fontana’s slab-on-grade homes route returns through interior walls, which spreads the smoky air through the entire structure within minutes. Sealing those returns quickly is the difference between cleaning one room and cleaning the whole house.
Fire Damage Repair in Fontana
Fire damage repair in Fontana is the structural work needed after mitigation: replacing charred drywall, framing, flooring, and fixtures so the home is safe and functional again. In Fontana, fire damage repair typically runs from $5,000 to $18,000 depending on the severity of the burn and whether the stucco exterior or concrete slab needs structural attention. This is the work that follows cleanup, and it’s where a written scope matters most. You shouldn’t be guessing what’s behind wall number three.
Charring Checks Behind Stucco and Slab Plates
Stucco looks fine from the outside and hides problems behind it. We use thermal imaging to check wall cavities and moisture mapping to check slab plates for hidden charring and smoldering spots, because a missed hot spot in a Fontana tract home can reignite days after the fire department left. Concrete slab foundations also trap heat and smoke differently than raised foundations, so we check under plates where charring likes to hide.
Securing the Structure After Fire
Before any repair starts, the home has to be secure. Emergency board-up, temporary fencing if needed, and roof tarping stop further damage from the next Santa Ana wind event. For homes with detached workshops and heavy sliding barn doors on steel tracks, we coordinate with a local garage door specialist to ensure safe ventilation access while we work, all as part of one dispatch.
Trusted Brands We Service in Fontana
We stock parts and run equipment from brands Fontana homeowners may already know by sight: B-Air air movers, Phoenix dehumidifiers, and XPOWER air scrubbers. Since our crews dispatch from the Inland Empire, not a warehouse in another state, turnaround on common equipment and parts is same-day or next-day for Fontana jobs. That matters when your home is open to the dry Fontana air and you want it closed back up as fast as safety allows. We also use Injectidry systems for any concealed wall cavity drying that follows fire suppression water damage.
See the difference
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AfterCommon Fire Damage Restoration Problems We See in Fontana Homes
- Wind-driven ember entry through attic vents and eaves. Fontana’s downslope flow through the Cajon Pass pushes lit embers into vent openings far from the fire line, causing smoldering damage in insulation and roof decking. Homeowners often only notice it days later when the next wind event stirs the smoke odor through the living space.
- Rapid smoke spread through open floor plans. The slab-on-grade tract homes built in the 1980s through the 2000s share repetitive layouts with open living areas and interior HVAC returns. Without immediate sealing of those returns, smoke contaminates the entire structure within minutes and partial containment becomes nearly impossible.
- Missed charring behind stucco exteriors and concrete slab plates. Stucco and slab foundations hold heat longer than wood framing, which means charring can hide under plates and inside wall cavities. Our thermal imaging routine exists specifically because we’ve seen too many Fontana homes with smoldering spots that reignited days after the first crew left.
- Detached workshop fires on rural and acreage properties. Fontana still has plenty of semi-rural lots with detached workshops, garages, and storage buildings that pack heavy doors and long service drives. Fires in those structures need a different scope: more equipment hauling, different ventilation access, and coordination with door specialists for safe reopening.
Pricing for Fire Damage Restoration in Fontana, CA
Here’s what Fontana homeowners can expect to pay when they call us. Smoke damage cleanup in a single room starts around $2,800. Whole-home soot removal and odor neutralization for a typical 2,000-square-foot tract home runs $4,500 to $7,500. Fire damage repair that includes drywall replacement, framing, and structural work typically lands between $5,000 and $18,000 depending on how much structure is involved and whether the stucco or slab needs attention. Emergency board-up alone starts around $800. The biggest cost drivers are square footage, how far smoke traveled through the HVAC system, and whether we’re reopening walls to check for charring. You’ll get a written price before any of that work starts, with no change orders snuck in at the end. Call (341) 212-7342 for a free estimate and a straight answer.
We Also Serve Cities Near Fontana
Our crews regularly work in Fontana and the surrounding communities, including Bloomington, Rialto, Rancho Cucamonga, and Riverside. If you’re just over the city line and your home took smoke from the same wind event, call the same number. Our Fire Damage Restoration team covers the whole corridor, and dispatch doesn’t change based on zip code.
Serving Fontana, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Fontana area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Fire Damage Restoration in Fontana
The Fontana wind carries embers and fine smoke particles through vents, eaves, and attic openings into homes far beyond the burn zone. Even if your home never saw flames, you’ll see soot streaks around window frames, smell smoke inside closets, and find gray dust on horizontal surfaces. That’s why we treat smoke cleanup as a whole-home job in Fontana, not just a spot clean in one room. Call (341) 212-7342 and we’ll tell you what you’re actually dealing with.
Concrete slabs hold heat much longer than a raised crawlspace, which means the wood plates sitting directly on the slab can smolder invisibly after a fire. A raised-foundation home pulls cooler air from below, but a slab-on-grade Fontana tract home traps heat under the framing. We use thermal imaging and moisture mapping to check plate lines, wall cavities, and stucco penetrations before we sign off on any repair. That extra pass catches hotspots other contractors are built to miss.
We secure the opening first, often with board-up while we assess whether the overhead door and track are salvageable. If the door is a standard tract-home roll-up, we can usually re-track or replace it as part of the fire damage repair scope. For heavier doors on detached workshops or acreage properties, we coordinate with a local garage door specialist for safe ventilation access, so drying equipment goes in without anyone getting hurt on a compromised spring or track. One trip, one plan, one written price.
Call the same day. Smoke from even a small stove fire will coat open living areas, push into the HVAC returns, and settle into the attic insulation in a matter of hours. The sooner we seal returns and start air scrubbing, the less of your home needs odor treatment and the lower the final number. If you’ve already waited a few days, don’t panic, but don’t wait longer. We’ll walk the house and tell you what we see.
Smoke damage restoration is cleaning: soot removal, air scrubbing, odor neutralization, surface sealing. Fire damage repair is structural: replacing charred framing, drywall, insulation, and flooring, and verifying the stucco and slab plates aren’t hiding damage. In Fontana’s stucco-heavy tract homes, the two often happen together because smoke gets everywhere while charring hides behind the exterior shell. We quote both in one written scope so you’re not paying for one and then discovering you need the other.
Written by Rick Sumner, Owner at Tidemark Water Damage Riverside, serving Fontana and the Inland Empire.