Fire Damaged Photo Restoration, Done by Hand

If a house fire brought you here, the photos are probably one loss among many, and the last thing you need is pressure. So let us say this first. There is no countdown clock on our end. Once your photos are dry, set them gently in a clean box, away from the smoke smell if you can, and come back to them when you are ready.

When that day comes, a real person will look at what survived and tell you plainly what can be saved. If it helps to talk to someone first, call us at +1 (307) 218-6920, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm Central. Asking costs nothing.

Soot is greasy and the surface of a photo is soft, so the biggest danger after the fire is well-meaning cleaning. A few simple rules protect what is left.

• Do not wipe or brush the soot. Rubbing grinds it into the surface and scratches the image underneath. This is the one mistake we most wish people knew to avoid.
• Lift loose soot with gentle air instead. A soft puff of air, or a hand-squeeze bulb blower if you have one, carries off the loose layer without anything touching the print.
• Skip water, wipes, and cleaners. Moisture can bind soot to the surface and damage the image layer.
• Handle photos by the edges, with clean, dry hands.
• Then photograph each one exactly as it is, soot and all. Our step-by-step tutorial shows how to take a clear phone picture, and our artists work from that, so the original never has to leave you.

Fire damage is usually several problems at once. Smoke leaves a yellow-brown film that dulls the whole image. Soot settles as dark specks and smears. Heat scorches the edges, makes the paper brittle, and can warp or bubble the surface. Each of these is a separate repair, and each one is work our artists know well.

Many fire-damaged photos also picked up water damage from hoses or sprinklers, with stains, rippling, or prints stuck together. We handle that too, and our water damaged photo restoration page covers what to do when wet photos are part of the picture.

Here is the plain truth we give every family. If the image still exists under the grime, even faintly, there is usually a great deal we can do. Smoke film can be cleared, soot marks lifted, scorched edges rebuilt, and the look of heat warping smoothed away, all by hand.

But where the paper actually burned away, or the surface melted completely, that part of the picture no longer exists, and no one can truly bring it back. What our artists can do is rebuild a lost corner or edge from the surviving image so the finished photo looks whole. Before any of that, we review your photo free and tell you exactly what to expect. And if we cannot restore it, you do not pay. Everything we do restore is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, paid in cash, not store credit.

When your photo reaches us, a real American artist sits down with it. No filter, no automatic button. They work in careful layers, first clearing the smoke film so the true tones show through, then lifting soot from faces and clothing, then rebuilding scorched edges and smoothing the look of warped areas.

Because a person does the work, the people in your photo stay themselves. An AI app that cannot see through soot simply invents what it thinks a face should look like. Our artists never do that. Where a detail survives, they recover it. Where it is truly gone, they tell you. You can see the difference in our before-and-after gallery.

You do not need a scanner, a shop, or even your own house right now. Take a clear phone picture of each damaged photo, wherever you are, and upload it. First proofs are usually ready in 1 to 3 days, and a 24-hour rush is available if you need one sooner. Revisions are free until it looks right.

Restoration starts at $38 per photo, and the price is set only by the artist level you choose, never by how bad the damage is. When life settles, you can also mail originals to our New Jersey photo-scanning lab, tracked both ways, scanned within 24 hours of arrival, and returned free. Questions along the way? Our help page and our phone line are both open to you.