Best way to clean guns after house fire

[Viper99]

Hello all,
Had a home fire recently and all my toys stink. Ideas on what to use to clean them properly would be appreciated.
Regards

[2ndsojourn]

Hoppe's

[FrankenMauser]

Smoke damage can linger for decades in certain materials. You may just have to let time take care of it.

But...
I'd try some Murphy's Oil Soap on the wood, and general firearm cleaning solvents on metal.

[Evan Thomas]

I agree with FrankenMauser about cleaning the metal with whatever solvents you normally use. Wood, being more porous, is more apt to retain odors. Vinegar solutions are what's most often recommended for removing smoke odors -- if it were me, I'd probably try a combination of vinegar and Dawn detergent (Dawn is the usual recommendation for cleaning anything delicate, as it's pH-neutral) on both wood and synthetic stocks.

[2wheelwander]

I'm sorry about the fire, my home burned down 4 years ago. PM me if you like, I might be able to give some guidance with insurance dealings. You may have options they are not required to tell you about if you suffered a big loss.

Company we used through insurance to handle salvageable belongings would not touch my guns. However the agent I worked with told me to just clean them with the chemicals I normally would, but a very thorough cleaning. Mine were in a cheap stamped metal safe at the time and did not suffer any heat damage (furthest point from the origin of the fire), so only moderate smoke damage, no water damage.

I deep cleaned everything with Hopps, used aerosol wally world gun cleaner for deeper crevices and wiped down wood with pledge. 4 years later you'd never know anything happened.

Don't let them sit too long, the smoke residue turns to a tar like substance with time. I do not think it is overly corrosive, just a PITA. We owned the burned carnage for another 3.5 years and what metal was in the house did not rust or suffer otherwise from the smoke residue, it just turned very sticky.

Good luck.

[johnwilliamson062]

If the salvage company won't touch it...
Then tell them they need to replace.

If you do clean it yourself track your hours, supplies, etc and turn it in as part of the claim.

My insurance isn't the cheapest I could find. I will be fine if I have a loss though.

[Aguila Blanca]

A fire salvage company may have a good reason not to touch firearms. They don't pay their workers top dollar, and many of them may be ex-convicts who aren't allowed to touch firearms. Further, if they take them for cleaning, wouldn't that constitute a transfer, requiring the services of an FFL? (At least for handguns)

[Scorch]

I have cleaned several gun collections for customers after house fires. Starts out with complete disassembly and cleaning (I use an ultrasonic cleaner), re-oil and clean stocks as well. Even after complete cleaning, some materials (nylon slings and such) still smell, only less so.

A fire salvage company may have a good reason not to touch firearms.

Main reason probably is they are not licensed or insured to take possession of your firearms.

[Viper99]

They were not burned but the smoke got into the small safe they were in. I have cleaned them and oil them and they still stink. That smoke is horrible.

House will be a total tear down of the interior. But family is fine and that's what counts.

Regards

[TXAZ]

We moved into a home w/ previous heavy smoker in 1 room.
We bought an ionizer and serious fans and ran them 24/7.

It took a year but no trace anymore.
Good luck.

[Evan Thomas]

I've deleted some posts. The OP asked for advice about cleaning smoke-damaged guns; financial advice is off-topic.

[langenc]

Towheelwander above must have been very lucky. My house fire put off some of the most corrosive smoke going. Guns were rusted in less than 2 days.

Anytime a fire get the guns out asap or sooner. Take em into a shower and wash em down...assuming no heat damage. Then clean as you would after any range trip. Take stocks off and dry all parts-wipe all outside parts w/ RIG=rust inhibiting grease and you will be ok.

[In The Ten Ring]

I have a shotgun I bought used at a gun store that still smells like cigarette smoke. I've had it 21 years or so!

*I don't smoke either.

[Hummer70]

Some departments use foam on structure attacks. Some is easily noted and some is not. It is very corrosive on guns so get to them quickly if you can. If they have already dried and you don't see corrosion you are probably OK insofar as corrosion is concerned.

Below is me at a scene where an estimated 5000 rounds of centerfire ammo had cooked off in a guy's garage with us being a few feet away. He was a reloader and his propellant lit off and superheated the garage quickly and roof on that end of house was gone when we rolled into scene. My crew went in front door to save one end of house and another crew to cool down garage area. We were able to save all bedrooms and contents but of course all needed cleaning.

Owner had a safe load of Thompson Contenders(about a dozen I saw) and door was open so they got wet but no heat damage.

I felt so bad for owner. He was just leaving for work when he got a fire alarm on his cell phone as he pulled out of driveway and looked back and garage area was in flames and roof burned off quickly.

[osbornk]

I worked large loss fire claims for many years. Non-porous items like barrels and other things can be cleaned properly to remove odors. Porous items like wood stocks and other things have to be cleaned and sealed to block odors. Plastic items were generally replaced and disposed of because they held the odors (but some were sealed). Softer plastics like Tupperware held and retained odors worse than hard plastics.

I handled large loss house fires (usually total burns) for years in the mountains in the coal fields when coal was declining which resulted in a lot of suspicious fires where the homeowner was the prime suspect. One of the first thing I did after talking with the owner was to sift through the debris. Since almost everyone in the mountains owned guns, I looked for the burned out remains of the them with the serial numbers. The first indication of owner involvement was the lack of guns but there was an occasional claim of theft and then arson. It was the same with jewelry. The other thing I looked for were the remains of family photos and keepsakes. I don't think I ever had an owner caused arson where the guns were burned.

[2wheelwander]

^ Heard the investigator ask the fire chief if those items were in the house when they arrived (they were). To the great credit of the fire fighters, they asked during the battle of the fire where my family photographs were and what I wanted out. Firefighters walked over hoses and around men fighting the fire to carry out family photo albums and took photos off the wall during the fire. We couldn't have been more grateful. Two hours into the fire the Chief asked if I had any guns, I damn near ran into the house to get them myself! "You'd better save that room!!"

[Tom-R2]

We had a fire in our living room at our old house in 1996. It was out in a few minutes, but the whole house was really smoked bad with the couch, loveseat and carpet all melting/burning. I had several long guns in a rack that all got smoked. The smoke from all of the burning materials was very acidic and pitted the metal on a couple shotguns and a rifle. My stainless mini-30 darkened a little, but it fared the best. I eventually stripped and sanded the barrel on one shotgun and put a Cerakote finish on it. It's certainly not back to any original condition, but it looks much better than it did, and it shoots fine. It was a used double-barrel that I got as a teenager, so it's sticking around the family some more. Cleaning them immediately kept them from being worse off.

[osbornk]

We had a fire in our living room at our old house in 1996. It was out in a few minutes, but the whole house was really smoked bad with the couch, loveseat and carpet all melting/burning. I had several long guns in a rack that all got smoked. The smoke from all of the burning materials was very acidic and pitted the metal on a couple shotguns and a rifle. My stainless mini-30 darkened a little, but it fared the best. I eventually stripped and sanded the barrel on one shotgun and put a Cerakote finish on it. It's certainly not back to any original condition, but it looks much better than it did, and it shoots fine. It was a used double-barrel that I got as a teenager, so it's sticking around the family some more. Cleaning them immediately kept them from being worse off.

The kind of material burned has a great impact on the acidity, odor and damage that the smoke does. Plastics, nylon and other synthetic fibers were the most dangerous and damaging. A small fire to the wrong materials can cause a hugh amount of damage while a larger fire of wood doesn't do nearly as much.