Pictures and negatives are some of our most valued belongings. They chronicle our lives and our journeys. They preserve the faces of our friends who have passed on .They hold every year of our kids lives .It is terribly difficult to discover that our images and negatives have been through fire damage. We are eager to find out if there is any way that these valued memory holders can be restored. If this misfortune has taken place the first thing you ought to do is call upon a photographic restoration expert, preferably one who is experienced with fire damage restoration. Make a time to bring the photographs and negatives to the fire damage restoration expert as fast as you can. The more the pictures stay in this condition the further the fire damage they will endure.

Photographic negatives are damaged by the heat of a fire. When too hot the emulsion on a negative that has the picture gets gluey. It will stick to any surface it makes contact with. The emulsion can crack, warp, or shrink as a result of fire damage. Colored can alter their color or lose color. Black and white negatives are not as liable to lose color. Handle the negatives with caution when moving them following the fire damage as they will mark very easily. Dust and fragments will bond to a heated negative at times becoming forever embedded in the negative.

Photos are also damaged by the warmth from fire. If the heat of the flames are hot enough the base of the image will smolder. The coating on the photograph will become tacky and bind to any additional thing it comes across Photographs stacked all together will become adhered together. If the pics are in a scrap book do not try to take them out. Fire damaged pics may be marked quite easily when touched. When the emulsion is hot and sticky soot particles can get implanted in the print and the acidity of the soot can destroy and alter the colors in a print. The more the soot is in contact with the photo the more significantly it will damage the photo. If water touches the pic the emulsion will become jelly- like and attach to other photographs or something else. Don't attempt to pull the photos from each other because the emulsion will be removed thus doing away with part of the image from the photograph.

If the images are wet,from water damage leave them in plastic bags and freeze them until you can get them to the photographic restoration place. If they are dried out take them from the fire damaged place and keep them out of harm's way until they can be taken to be restored. The fire damage restoration expert might be able to clean and restore several of the negatives and prints. After the expert has restored the prints as much as possible there may be many images that are only partly restored. There may be parts of the images that are absent from the pic. Programs on the computer are able to recreate the absent pieces of the images. The pic can be scanned, the absent part restored, and a new photo made that has the total image. This is good information for those that adores their photographs.