California business owners helping homeowners in the aftermath of destructive wildfires

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April Barlow and Grant Bridges, co-owners of ServPro, explain how they're helping homeowners even while dealing with their own personal losses from wildfires in California.

Transcript

00:00For those fortunate to still have their home, there may be some cleanup, damage repair will

00:05be needed. Yeah, SurfPro experts can help with fire restoration. April Barlow and Grant Bridges

00:10are co-owners of three SurfPro franchises in the Los Angeles area. Thank you both for joining us

00:16this evening. Thank you. Hi Jeff and Anna. First question for you, how is SurfPro helping LA

00:24communities recover from these devastating wildfires? So SurfPro is a national franchise.

00:31We have over 200 franchises in the Southern California area and we're able to mobilize

00:37those resources to assist the local franchises that get overwhelmed in a time like this.

00:42We also have disaster recovery teams that are coordinated by our corporate office

00:45that are capable of handling large commercial projects or bigger homes. So we're really geared

00:51up to help all of those in need even with how many homes are impacted during these fires.

00:58I know that many homes were just straight up destroyed and there may be other types of work

01:03needed there, but a lot of homes are still standing too and maybe they were near homes

01:08that burnt. They took on some exposure to the heat. So for those homes that do need some work,

01:14what's the first step SurfPro could provide homeowners? Yeah, I think for homes or businesses,

01:21various structures that are either within the burn radius or within a mile of it. So a lot of

01:26surrounding areas to Pacific Palisades and Altadena, Pasadena, things like that.

01:31It's just an initial set. I mean, restorability of various contents, structure, and then be able

01:39to put together a protocol for each home that's individual to assess the damages,

01:47what cleaning and restoration work we can do.

01:52They have provided enough funds to get back as quick as possible and get back.

02:06And Grant, we may have just briefly lost a little bit of the signal there, but

02:10we understand that you know firsthand how devastating these wildfires can be.

02:14Could you comment on that? Yeah, it's been a pretty wild experience for me personally. My home

02:25on that Wednesday, it was just a tragedy. It was devastating. It's the worst natural disaster event

02:35potentially in our nation's history ever. It's pretty shocking that this is my life and

02:41you know I'm torn with where I put my time, my energy, my heart. I need to be with my family

02:49and my community, my neighbors, but also I have my duty and responsibility to our community as

02:54an owner of a Serpro franchise to be able to come in the front lines, to be able to help people

03:00get back in their homes, answer questions, process themselves what they're going through.

03:04You know I've always had a lot of empathy for people going through

03:08various disasters, but now I'm going to have just an ultimate level of empathy to really relate to

03:14people on what they're going through and I'm currently going through it with them. So it's a

03:18very humbling time, but we're just really grateful for the opportunity to help a lot of people out

03:24while I try to figure that out for me as well. Yeah Grant, I'm so sorry to hear the personal

03:29impacts this has had on you, but thank you both so much for the work you're doing. April Barlow

03:33and Grant Bridges, co-owners of Serpro. Thanks for joining us this evening. Thank you. Thank you.

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