Fire Damaged Device Data Recovery
A device that's been through a fire can look ruined while the storage inside is still readable, because hard drive platters and memory chips are often better protected than the case and board around them. Severe heat can also destroy the data outright, so careful handling matters. Don't power it on; we recover fire-damaged devices for one flat $1,200, and you pay nothing if we can't recover your data.
Signs of fire damage
- •Melted, warped, or charred case or enclosure
- •Soot or smoke residue on the device or in its ports
- •Was in a room or building fire, even if it looks fine
- •Soaked by firefighting water or chemicals
- •Won't power on after a fire or extreme heat
- •Strong smoke smell from the device
What’s actually happening
Fire damages devices in several ways at once. Direct heat can melt plastic cases, warp circuit boards, and crack or loosen solder joints. Smoke and soot leave acidic, conductive residue that keeps corroding electronics afterward. And many fire-damaged devices are also soaked by firefighting water, adding liquid damage on top.
The storage itself is often more protected than the outside suggests. A hard drive's platters sit inside a sealed metal housing, and the memory chips in SSDs, phones, and laptops can sometimes survive heat that destroys the surrounding case and board. There are limits, though. Platters can warp at high enough temperatures, smoke can get into a hard drive through its breather filter, and extreme heat can damage the magnetic coating or the stored charge in flash memory. When that happens, the data can be lost for good.
Phones and laptops also contain lithium batteries, which can be damaged by heat and become a safety hazard. That makes careful handling important both for your safety and for the recovery.
What not to do
- ✕Don't power it on or charge it — heat-damaged boards and batteries can short, and a damaged lithium battery can be a fire hazard.
- ✕Don't wash off soot with water or household cleaners — wet soot can become more corrosive, and liquid can get inside the device.
- ✕Don't scrape, pry, or cut melted casing off a drive — prying can bend the housing or damage the platters inside.
- ✕Don't open a hard drive to check for damage — smoke or soot inside needs to be dealt with in a cleanroom.
- ✕Don't store it somewhere damp or smoky while you decide — soot residue and moisture keep corroding the electronics.
- ✕Don't ship a device with a swollen, leaking, or burned battery without contacting us first — damaged lithium batteries can be dangerous in transit.
How we recover it
Careful assessment
Engineers document the damage, handle any heat-damaged batteries safely, and carefully remove melted or damaged casing to reach the storage without stressing it.
Clean and repair
Soot and corrosion are cleaned from boards and components. Hard drive boards are repaired or replaced with the original ROM data transferred, and drives exposed to heat or smoke are opened in a cleanroom to inspect and clean the platters and replace heads as needed.
Work around damaged boards
When a phone, laptop, or SSD board is badly damaged, engineers attempt to repair it enough to access the memory, or move storage components to working hardware where the device's design and encryption allow it.
Image, rebuild, and verify
Readable storage is imaged with professional hardware imagers that control retries, file systems are rebuilt from that copy, and your files are checked before they're returned on a secure return drive.
Can the data be recovered?
Fire-damaged devices are sometimes recoverable even when they look destroyed, and sometimes not recoverable even when they look fine. It depends on how hot the storage itself got and for how long, whether smoke reached inside a hard drive, and how much corrosion followed. Platters that have warped, or memory chips exposed to extreme heat, may not be readable by anyone. Devices with encrypted storage tied to their own hardware, such as many phones and newer laptops, also depend on whether the original board can be made to work. We'll tell you what we find after diagnosis, and if we can't recover your data, you pay nothing.
Related guides
Fire Damage — common questions
My computer's case melted. Is the drive inside gone?
Can data survive a house fire?
Should I clean the soot off before shipping?
Is it safe to ship a fire-damaged laptop or phone?
How much does fire damage recovery cost?
Other failures we recover from
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