Pictures and negatives are a few of our most cherished possessions. They chronicle our lives and adventures we've been on. They preserve the likeness of our family members who have passed on .They hold each moment of our kids development .It is very upsetting to find that our pictures and negatives have suffered fire damage. We are eager to find out if there is any possibility that these valued life memory preservers can be saved. If this tragedy has taken place the first thing you ought to do is call upon a photographic restoration professional, and if possible one who has experience with fire damage restoration. Make a time to take the pictures and negatives to the fire damage restoration professional as quickly as you can. The longer the images stay in this condition the additional fire damage they will undergo.

Photo negatives are damaged by the heat of a fire. When heated the layer on a negative that holds the picture gets sticky. It will stick to any surface it comes into contact with. The emulsion might split, distort, or reduce in size as a result of fire damage. Color can modify their color or lose color. Black/White negatives are not as liable to lose color. Touch the negatives with care when moving them after the fire damage as they will scrape quite easily. Dirt and larger pieces of remains will stick to a heated negative many times becoming forever ingrained in the negative.

Pictures are also damaged by the temperature from a blaze. If the warmth of the flames are hot enough the base of the image will burn up. The chemical layer on the photograph will become gummy and attach to any other thing it comes into contact with Pics piled all together will be adhered to each other. If the photographs are in a photograph album don't attempt to take them out. Fire damaged pics might be scratched very easily when touched. When the emulsion is hot and gummy soot particles can get embedded in the photo and the acid nature of the soot can damage and modify the coloring in a photo. The more the soot is in the photo the more greatly it will damage the pic. If water comes into contact with the pic the coating will become gum- like and stick to additional prints or something else. Don't attempt to pull the prints apart as the chemical layer will come off then taking away part of the image from the print.

If the photographs are wet,from water damage put them in plastic bags and freeze them until you have a chance to get them to the photographic restoration place. If they are dry transfer them from the fire damaged location and keep them out of harm's way until they will be taken to be repaired. The fire damage restoration expert may be able to wash and restore many of the negatives and prints. After the specialist has repaired the prints as much as can be there might be a few prints that are just partially restored. There might be parts of the images that are missing from the picture. Programs on the computer are able to repair the absent portions of the images. The photograph can be scanned, the absent part restored, and a new pic made that has the total image. This is wonderful information for all the people that treasures their photographs.