The short answer
After a fire, you choose the demolition contractor. Not your insurance company.
California law gives property owners the right to hire whichever contractor they want. Demo Patrol clears fire-damaged structures across Calaveras County, and we know the insurance side as well as the equipment side.
Real number, on screen. No phone tag.
CA Contractor #1117491 · Insured · Free walkthrough confirms final price.
If Your Property Burned
The Gann Fire started August 3, 2026 near Hogan Dam Road and Gann Road outside Valley Springs. If your home or outbuilding burned, demolition is not the first step.
This is the order that protects you:
Ash can hide hot spots, unstable structure, and hazardous debris. Nothing on your property is worth an injury.
Ask what the policy covers for debris removal and demolition, and ask about additional living expenses while you are displaced.
Your adjuster and your contractor both need that record, and it only exists if you capture it first.
If a government cleanup program activates for the Gann Fire, moving debris early can affect eligibility. It also weakens your claim documentation either way.
The county declared a local emergency, and official recovery steps will come through county announcements.
That is California law. It applies whether one structure burned or twenty.
Questions about any of this cost nothing. Call (209) 396-7601 and we will talk through where you are, whether or not you ever hire us.
The Insurance Side
When fire damage demolition runs through an insurance claim, the process has its own language. We write itemized estimates "specifically written in insurance lingo" so the adjuster can approve scope without three rounds of clarification.
If the initial approval does not cover the full demo and debris removal, we work with the adjuster directly. Payment usually flows the simple way: the owner receives the claim payout, then pays us like any other project. One contract, one invoice, upfront pricing.
Fire Day to Demo Day
On fire day, the fire department removes and caps the gas meter and lines, then tapes off the structure. The structure sits until a safe-removal date is approved, and that waiting period is when the paperwork moves:
Not Standard Debris
A burned structure is not standard demolition debris. Ash, soot, burned framing, and what remains of drywall and insulation can carry hazardous material, so hazardous material handling changes how we crush, load, and haul.
We hook up to water or bring a water truck and spray the debris down while we crush. Every load leaves the site tarped and bungeed, the legal standard for hauling fire debris on California roads.
Disposal is the part nobody warns you about. Most landfills will not accept fire debris, so debris haul-off routes to facilities that do. Ask any bidder where your burned material is going. We answer with names and documentation.
Water truck or hookup on site, debris sprayed down while machines work
Every load secured to the legal standard for fire debris transport
Most landfills refuse burned material. Loads route to facilities that take it, documented
Disposal documentation goes to you for the insurance file and the rebuild
Real Work
Every fire job starts with a site assessment: a structural assessment of what is standing, what shows structural instability, and what is salvageable. Partial demolition is common, full demolition happens when nothing is worth saving, and emergency structural demolition gets a leaning wall down before it chooses its own timing.
A double-wide mobile home destroyed by fire, cleared to bare pad, a short drive over the Amador County line from Valley Springs.
A fire-damaged garage taken down with the foundation preserved in place for the rebuild.
Burned trailers removed for FedEx, commercial fire demolition on a working logistics site.
Houses, garages, barns, and mobile homes all burn differently, and house demolition, garage demolition, barn demolition, and mobile home demolition each run through the same structural demolition standards and the same OSHA-10 crew. We serve all of Calaveras County, from Valley Springs, Rancho Calaveras, and Jenny Lind through San Andreas and up the Highway 4 corridor past Angels Camp and Copperopolis toward the Stanislaus National Forest.
One clarification worth making: we are not a fire damage restoration company. Restoration contractors handle smoke remediation, cleaning smoke damage and soot damage out of what can be saved. We remove what cannot be saved, and we hand back a cleared pad with final grading, ready for whoever builds next.
Pricing
Honest answer: it depends on what the fire left behind. In Spencer's words, "sometimes we don't need to charge extra" beyond standard demolition rates. When conditions demand more, "10 percent or more is fair," and the drivers are specific: soil scraping, dirt testing, and how much of the structure needs hand separation before machines can work.
Standard demolition math still anchors the number, with house demolition typically running $8 to $15 per square foot. The fire premium, when there is one, gets itemized in writing so you and your adjuster see exactly what it covers.
Common Questions
Yes. We handle structure demolition and fire debris removal across the Gann Fire area, including Valley Springs, Rancho Calaveras, Jenny Lind, Burson, Wallace, and the rest of Calaveras County. The site walk is free and the scope arrives in writing.
That decision comes from the county and state, usually after damage assessments finish, so watch official Calaveras County channels. If a program activates, enrolling is your choice. If your cleanup runs through insurance instead, California law says you pick the contractor, and we provide itemized estimates written for adjusters.
Usually, when demolition is covered in the claim. California property owners choose their own contractor, and we provide itemized estimates written for adjusters. The typical flow: the carrier pays the owner, and the owner pays us like any standard project. Which carrier you have does not change anything on our end. We work with all of them, and you never need us to sit on a preferred vendor list to hire us.
After the fire department approves a safe-removal date. The Calaveras County demolition permit and asbestos verification usually run during that window, so the paperwork and the fire department timeline finish close together. We file immediately so the machines are the only thing waiting.
Yes. Partial demolition is common after fires. We have taken down a fire-damaged garage while preserving its foundation, and controlled demolition around surviving structure is planned during the site walk before any equipment arrives.
Most landfills will not accept fire debris, so loads route to facilities that do. Debris is wetted during crushing, hauled tarped and bungeed, and documented load by load, and that disposal paperwork goes to you for the insurance file.
Talk to us before you sign anything with your carrier.
Call (209) 396-7601. The Site Walk Is FreeOne licensed and insured crew handles fire demolition across Northern California, within a 5-hour radius.
Licensed and insured demolition contractor serving Calaveras County and Northern California. Insurance-ready itemized estimates with a written scope in 24 hours.
