Insurance Claims • Environmental Testing • Field Intelligence
The Fire Loss AI Scoped at 2 Areas.
Independent Testing Found 8.
Moran Robbins
Director of Business Development, AirMD • The Built Environment Insider • April 2026
Independent surface sampling revealed combustion byproducts throughout the entire facility — not just the areas of visible fire damage.
I want to tell you about a fire claim that changed the way I think about scope.
A fire broke out in a mechanical room of a large commercial facility. The fire department responded, extinguished the blaze, and the restoration process began. A visual assessment identified two areas of significant damage — the mechanical room itself and the immediately adjacent section. Standard protocol. Reasonable conclusion based on what was visible.
AirMD was retained to conduct independent combustion byproduct surface sampling throughout the building. The working assumption going in was straightforward: fire residue levels would be highest near the fire source and decrease with distance. That’s how fire damage is typically understood — and typically scoped.
“That assumption was wrong.”
What the Lab Results Showed
Fourteen surface samples were collected throughout the facility using Bio-Tape tape lifts and submitted under chain of custody to an independent accredited laboratory for analysis using Brightfield Microscopy, Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), and Reflected Light Microscopy (RLM).
Every sample in the building came back with elevated combustion byproduct concentrations. Not just the areas near the fire. Every area.
That last number is the one that changed the scope conversation entirely. The vinyl-surfaced insulation running along the ceiling — in sections far from the mechanical room — tested at 87.2% fire/combustion particle concentration. The lab confirmed the presence of aciniform soot throughout. The mechanism: fire-related particles had migrated through wall and ceiling penetrations, traveling the length of the building and embedding in the insulation material.
The final recommendation: Zone 1 required full material removal. Zone 2 — the rest of the building — required damp-wiping and HEPA vacuuming of all wall and ceiling surfaces, plus removal of the vinyl-surfaced insulation throughout. Two areas became eight.
Visual assessment identifies visible damage. Independent testing reveals what the camera cannot see.
Why This Matters for How Fire Claims Get Scoped
Fire damage looks like a visual problem. It is not.
The char, the soot deposits on visible surfaces, the structural compromise near the fire origin — those are the things an adjuster sees on a site visit. Those are the things AI computer vision tools analyze from photos. Those are the things that get written into the initial scope.
What AI Cannot Do on a Fire Claim
✕ Detect combustion byproducts that have migrated through building systems
✕ Find soot embedded in ceiling insulation 200 feet from the fire source
✕ Confirm whether HVAC systems distributed fire residue through occupied spaces
✕ Produce accredited lab results defensible in litigation
Combustion byproducts — char, ash, carbon black/soot — travel through air movement, HVAC systems, and penetrations in wall and ceiling assemblies. They are measured in micrometers. They are invisible to the naked eye and undetectable without laboratory analysis.
What This Means for Carriers and Adjusters
The industry is deploying AI at scale for claims triage, document processing, and photo-based damage assessment. In many contexts that is producing real efficiency gains — faster FNOL processing, better fraud detection, reduced administrative burden on adjusters.
But fire claims are where visual assessment and AI photo analysis are most likely to produce an incomplete scope — and where that incomplete scope is most likely to generate a reopened claim.
A fire loss scoped based on visible damage and cleared for reconstruction without independent combustion byproduct testing is a claim that may reopen when occupants report health symptoms, when contractors discover contaminated insulation during reconstruction, or when a subsequent inspection reveals the building-wide contamination the initial assessment missed.
The Bottom Line
On any fire loss in an occupied building, in a building with HVAC systems operating during or after the fire, or in a building with adjacent occupied spaces — independent combustion byproduct testing is not optional. It is the documentation that closes the claim correctly the first time.
A Note on Methodology
Surface sampling for combustion byproducts is conducted using tape lift collection submitted under chain of custody to an independent accredited laboratory. Analysis uses Brightfield Microscopy, Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), and Reflected Light Microscopy (RLM) per ASTM Method D6602. Results require interpretation in the context of visual observations, building conditions, fire source location, and HVAC system configuration by a trained environmental consultant.
About the Author
Moran Robbins
Director of Business Development, AirMD Environmental Consultants • Contributing Writer, The Built Environment Insider
Covering environmental risk, property claims, and building science across the insurance, restoration, and property management industries. AirMD provides independent environmental testing nationwide for carriers, adjusters, restoration contractors, and property managers.
