How to Find Lost Valuables After a Wildfire or Disaster

Post Disaster Search & Recovery

Ok, so you just lived through a terrible disaster, and you were evacuated, and now you need to go home and find your missing valuables that you were forced to leave behind. If it was a major disaster, you may be in for a real shock. Although our experience is mostly loss from a wildfire, it could also have been an earthquake, tornado, or a hurricane. Many of the techniques are the same, Your home may not be there anymore. What you might find is a lot filled with debris, or in the case of a wildfire, nothing but metal and ash where your home used to be. That is exactly what we experienced in December 2018, when we were allowed to return home, after being evacuated from the Camp-Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. We searched our home and then helped everyone we could to find their valuables. We found that helping others recover their things took our minds off of our own loss and helped in our emotional recovery. Neighbors helping neighbors.

Having volunteered and searched over 85 burned houses in the Northern California Camp-Fire, and more in other areas, here are some guidelines we learned for finding lost items in the rubble.

1: THIS IS THE NUMBER ONE RULE:

DO NOT MOVE, RAKE, OR SIFT ANYTHING UNTIL YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY READY TO SERIOUSLY SEARCH FOR YOUR ITEMS.

The more you disturb your search area, the harder it is to find your valuables. Depending on how hot the fire was, your fine gold rings may now be little ash covered blobs. Move them around and you probably will never find them.

2: Draw out a floor plan and mark out on paper where you remember your items were, and any landmarks like stove, oven, microwave, bed, TV, etc. See if you can see any of those items now.

3: Next try to visualize the house as it was in relationship to the remaining foundation. Look what direction the house collapsed and where your stuff fell. Best place to measure that is usually the kitchen or bathroom. You will see where the stove or oven is now in relationship to where it was before the fire. That will give you the approximate distance and direction of collapse, so you can project where other objects are now. Remember that lighter objects, and objects that were up high on a shelf, will travel farther in the direction of the collapse. The more you approach this as an archeological dig, the more successful you will be at finding your valuables.

4: Get yourself a metal detector with a small search coil (6″ max). An inexpensive detector like a Garrett ACE 300 or ACE 400 with the optional 4.5” search coil, a Garrett AT MAX or AT Pro with optional 4.5″ search coil, a Fisher GoldBug Pro with a 5” DD search coil, or a Teknetics G2+ with the optional 5″ round search coil will do just fine. If you have access to a more advanced detector that is even better, but most of your stuff can be found with those models. We used Whites Electronics MXT All Pro detectors with little 4×6 shooter search coils. Whites Electronics is currently out of business, but there are plenty of other metal detectors by other companies that will work. Stay away from Walmart, Costco and Target. Their detectors aren’t up to this job at all. Remember, you’re detecting around a sea of trash and scrap metal, so smaller is better for search coil size. You do not want a huge, really deep coil, because detectors penetrate ash with ease, and your search area will be littered with metal and junk. Be sure to turn down your gain. Most of your finds will be no deeper than the depth of the ash. Swing slow and methodical. Do not rush or be in a hurry. Unless your home was looted, your stuff is still there and you just have to be very methodical and patient. You may not find it all the first day, and if that is the case, then come back the next day and pick up where you left off. We once searched a burned house for 7 days straight to recover a lady’s rings and 300 gemstones. Once we found the rings, we knew the gemstones weren’t too far away, so at that point we sifted very slowly with 1/8” screens. Slow and steady wins the race here.

5: Your gold jewelry is probably unrecognizable. So many people in Paradise used the volunteers to sift their lots, and couldn’t find their rings. It made our job even harder. The rings have probably melted into little gold nuggets and they’re now covered in ash, looking like a billion other pebbles in the rubble. That is why you must use a metal detector. Listen for the gold or silver signal, and then sift that smaller area with an 1/8″ sifter. We place our sifters on top of large round Rubbermaid plastic garbage cans. That way you get a rocking motion from the can as you move the sifter, the can supports the weight of the sifter, and all your debris will stay in one place. When it’s about 2/3 full, find a clean spot and dump it upside down. Now if you need to re-search your debris, you can see where it all is. It is not that complicated, just very time consuming. You can do this.

6: We seriously recommend wearing tyvek suits, gloves, and a hat or ball cap (ash goes everywhere when your sifting). Gloves are a must, and a good first aid kit and some hydrogen peroxide (we usually carry two bottles of it just in case, and eye wash). Nails and glass are everywhere. Don’t forget goggles too. We try to find the suits that have the attached boot covers, so that we can wear heavy work boots underneath. A steel shank rubber boot is good, but be careful because some of the time they have steel toes that can interfere with a metal detector. They do also make electricians boots that have a hard plastic toe instead, or regular hiking boots which won’t set off your detector. A good N95 or P100 mask is essential. If you can’t find a mask, get a half face respirator. You do not want to breathe in the ash. It doesn’t look toxic, but it definitely is, and it might affect your health later on. Can we say carcinogenic?

7: We’ll say this again. Take your time and search thoroughly. You’ll find more with patience and focus. This is not a race. Besides this is a dangerous environment and accidents happen when people rush things. Think before you act,

8: Stay hydrated. You’ll sweat a lot in the tyvek suits, especially in the heat and sunshine. Drink lots of water, gatorade, etc. Last thing you want is heat stroke or dehydration. You can’t find anything from a hospital bed.

9: If you’re just searching for coins, turn up your detector’s descrimination a little so it rejects more trash, and gently rake back layers while detecting (a partner can make this go way easier). The best time to see coins in the ash is about 1 hour before sunset. For some reason the angle of the sun makes them pop visually at that time.

Good luck.

Message us with any questions. Hopefully you’ll beat the looters to your stuff. We saw so much looting after the Camp-Fire. It is a shame people feel a need to prey on others when they are down the most.

Also, be careful who you allow to help you. Some people will sift away and have no clue what to look for, and the tiny gold blobs will slip right through the sifter screen. It will go unnoticed because it looks like any other ash covered pebble. Also, unfortunately some other people will pretend to be helping you, find a few things for you, and then come back later after you’re gone to scoop up the good stuff. We’ve seen it too many times.

Lastly, if your home burned within the last 3 weeks, please know that your house and lot will be seriously contaminated and heavily toxic. Just because it doesn’t look too bad, doesn’t mean it won’t give you horrible health complications later. Once things settle down, you can search your property with a Tyvek suit, boots, gloves, and an N95 respirator. Right now it may too dangerous. Trust us, we’ve been where you are. We lost our house and everything we own to the Camp Fire, and we know how impossible this seems. You’re not alone. You can do this.  Read More Blogs!

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