Food

It's hard to salvage food items if the fire in your home in New Bern, NC, breaks out anywhere near the kitchen. Even if the flames don't come into direct contact with your pantry and fridge, high heat is likely to alter the chemical content of the food there, making it unsafe to eat. Go through your food storage and toss any items that may have been spoiled by the presence of the fire:

• Canned goods
• Boxed items
• Opened packages
• Anything on the counter

In addition to clearing out shelf-stable items, check your fridge and freezer for spoiled foods. If your home was without electricity for more than a couple of hours you probably need to throw away everything inside, even if the doors are well-sealed. The lack of refrigeration combined with the intense heat from being close to the fire is enough to ruin the items stored within.

Medicine

It's important to take stock of your medicine cabinet often so that you can throw away any medications that may be out of date. After a fire, however, all medicine, including prescription and over-the-counter items, should be discarded. Even if the pills or ointments are hidden behind the door of the cabinet or under the sink, the intense heat from the fire can alter their chemical composition, rendering them unsafe or ineffective. Create an itemized list of all the items you have to replace. You may be able to include them on your insurance claim and recoup some of the costs needed to restock your medicine cabinet.

Cosmetics

The fire damage restoration experts who mitigate the structural problems may be able to salvage certain personal items, too, but anything that is easily altered by heat must be thrown away. This includes all cosmetics. Toss all makeup, face wash, toner, moisturizers and other related items in the trash. The ingredients that make the original products go on smoothly and deliver amazing benefits to your skin are the same ones that don't stand up very well to high heat. Since you can't know for sure that they are still safe to use, it's better to replace them completely than take a chance that they will not live up to the promises on the packaging or cause issues with your skin.

There are many things that can be salvaged after a fire. The mitigation team can assess damages to personal items that are affected by smoke or soot, and a lot of your furniture may be able to be cleaned as well. However, you must throw away any food, medication or cosmetics that are subjected to the intense heat of a house fire. Knowing what to keep and what to discard is a vital part of the recovery process.