We had a house fire in June of 2025. Losing our home, belongings, and the process of navigating all the things we had no idea about (contents, construction, housing, insurance) was a nightmare. The vultures arrived within hours and it was almost impossible to know who to trust. Add to that, everything I heard about contents companies was terrible. Horror story after horror story. Items lost, broken, stolen, overcharging, recovery items still smelling like smoke, you name it. Then we met Ray Ranciato from American Fire Recovery (AFR). He had a kind and caring approach but we still didn't know if we could trust him. We had no pressure from Ray. He met with us several times over the course of a couple of weeks, explained the process thoroughly, and gave us references to check. Every single reference we called had fantastic things to say about Ray and his team. One thing about Ray - he will not leave you hanging. If he doesn't immediately answer your call, he will immediately call you back. The only time he has not answered us has been when he was with another client. We have tons of respect for Ray. This is such a great team of people and we received the best care we could hope for during a very stressful event. Dave did a complete inventory of all our belongings, complete with serial numbers and measurements. This made it so much easier to report unsalvageable items to our insurance company. He took pictures of all of our things, including spreading out the wrecked items and photographing them so we could try to recognize our destroyed belongings. And then there's Lawrence - well, what can we say about Lawrence. He's one of the kindest people I've known. He handled our items with so much respect and care. When he returned boxes of our contents back to us, they were packaged professionally. Every box was put in the room it belonged in (the boxes were labeled by room/contents) with the top split open for us so we could dive in and unpack. Items that were less priority were loaded into our garage, in groups of what room they belonged in. Lawrence would regularly return to remove empty boxes and packing. He took the items we no longer wanted and donated them for us. He even removed our "garbage" items - things that were not donatable. He even offered to hang our pictures throughout the house! We are so grateful for his care and kindness. He and Small Fry (his cute little dog and company mascot) are welcome to our house any time! A fire is a horrific experience. AFR eased the pain for us. I get nothing in return by recommending them. I know how awful a fire is and want other people to have the same great experience my husband and I had. read more

We had a fire in December of 2024. There's so much that goes along with restoring your home that you don't think about until it happens. The day after the fire we had contractors and public adjusters verbally fighting in our home, trying to win our business. Ray, the owner, was very patient and compassionate. He was very thorough in his explanation of the process and he along with his team delivered everything they promised. They cleaned and restored our belongings, and Lawrence made several trips to our temporary home to bring the things that we needed. We lost some of our pictures but Dave saved all that he could. He cleaned the pictures individually and pried the ones apart that were stuck together. honestly, that would have been so overwhelming for me to try to do. I was so impressed. These guys are very honest, they brought us every last Penny found in the house. There were certain things that we were sensitive about, such as my 3 yr old grandson's belongings. Ray worked with our insurance company to make sure those things were replaced. Our family is beyond grateful for American Fire Recovery. read more

A fire is a terrible disaster. Although you are in shock and don't know where to begin nor what to do, immediately call your insurance. I was blessed to have Ray, the owner, Lawrence and Dave his managers, and his crew to take care of my Personal Property. My insurance adjuster had explained to me that "Personal Property" is "anything that falls when you turn your house upside down": furniture, appliances (small and large), clothing, kitchen stuff etc. etc. etc. Initially, Ray said that any belongings of my three-year old granddaughter were going to be discarded and replaced by my insurance! That impressed me the most of upon meeting this kind gentleman. When Ray provided thorough information of himself, his company and his crew, I knew I was in good hands. They are/were all so friendly and professional. Everything, I mean everything, was logged; whether to restore or discard. Anything that was restored was cleaned, boxed and stored at his warehouse until we move back home. Ray also had a professional cleaning company take care of our clothes, shoes, purses, hats, caps, etc. that were returned to us within days of the fire. Ray always informed me of the steps he was taking. I have yet to move back home, but Ray does check in on us occasionally; we even received a lovely Xmas card from him. If anyone is going through what I unexpectedly went through, I HIGHLY recommend Ray and his crew which he endearingly considers, his family, as well. You can trust him which is rare these days. read more

After my house was subject to a fire due to a neighbor, I really needed help and American Fire Recovery did an excellent job with packing all of my belongings in a very secure manner and anytime I needed assistance they were available to help me access what I needed from storage without any problems. I highly recommend their services. read more

In July, 2019 I had a devastating fire that destroyed my home and damaged so many of my belongings and sentimental items. Little did I know that "earthly angels" would come to my rescue. Their services included to wrap and box every item, meticulously clean, then wrap, pack in boxes and labeled what's in the box and what room it came from and they put it all in storage until I was ready to move into my reconstructed home. Ray and Dave from American Fire Recovery came highly recommended. The minute I met Ray and Dave and their team, I knew I could trust them with my precious belongings. Things like my late grandmother's gold bracelet, my late mother's diamond/emerald wedding ring, my late mother in law's antique kimono, photo of my late husband and my 28 year old daughter's baby pictures, 30+ year old Noritake fine China set, plus countless treasured items. They neatly wrapped and boxed every single item. Fast forward to 2021. Finally moved into my reconstructed home. Ray and Dave would call periodically to check to see how we were doing. On one of those calls... I could happily say bring'em all down. I was so impressed by how organized things were. Dave neatly stacked them according to rooms. It was like Christmas in January. They did an awesome & amazing job cleaning and restoring my precious belongings. Even the rusty tools looked almost brand new. My late husband's handmade teakwood fishing boxes was beautifully restored. Tears of Joy & Happiness. As you can see I highly recommend American Fire Recovery. Ray and Dave are not only professional and knowledgeable, but very compassionate, empathetic and super friendly. read more

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With all the disappointment we experienced with shady or greedy contractors after our house fire, it was refreshing to deal with such decent and professional people. AFR's team swarmed all over our situation; they extricated and cleaned all of the contents of our house and returned them, placing everyone of my musical instruments in exactly the place they belonged. They also handled the structural cleaning. Beyond the quality of their work, it was reaffirming to interact with such nice people. Business owner Ray and each of his employees was respectful and friendly. read more

Ray and his crew made a terrible event painless. We had a fire come through the property destroying multiple buildings leaving one garage partially destroyed. I made a call to American Fire Restoration they showed up the same day to inspect damages. I really liked the way Ray communicated with me on the process they perform. The very next day a crew showed up ready to Sift through the rubble the lead man Lawrence had his team running like a smooth machine. I had gotten hurt not able to go out and help them identify things and help with the mess they said no worries they would take care of it all which they did very professionally. My appreciation for the crew was huge they handled everything from picking through burnt rubble cleaning and packing boxing A to Z. These are great people doing a tough job. They even stored my property till such time as I could get storage built so they could return it to me. I will RECOMMEND these great people to anyone. The work performed is 100% clean neat friendly caring. THANK YOU Lawrence and your crew. Ray you do a great service for people. Thank you again. Art H. read more

We hired Ray at AFR after an electrical fire at our home. We lost 2 rooms to the fire, but the rest of the house was full of smoke damage. Ray and his crew were there before any of the other service people cleaning EVERYTHING! They wiped down the walls, windows, cabinets, ceiling fans, appliances, etc. removing all the smoke. What they could not clean at the home, they packed up and took to their ozone room for a deep clean (it all came back cleaner than new!) and they took our clothing to an organic dry cleaner. They thought of things I never would have thought of, which I greatly appreciated as I was so overwhelmed from the fire itself. They really know what they're doing, are very friendly and professional. They've clearly helped many people through such tragedies before and I really valued Ray's calm, level-headed help with putting our home and our life back together! They also stored our belongings until we were able to move back into our home. Last week they returned and unpacked our belongings, putting everything away for us. I was impressed by how well everything was handled and packed - not one scratch, chip or dent on anything! I highly recommend this business. read more

After a house fire we hired American Fire Recovery for our restoration company. I don't usually take the time to YELP but because of the services we received, I felt I should. The whole process was foreign to us but the owner, Ray, calmly walked us thru what would be happening. Something that was very important to us, was that our calls be returned in a reasonable time frame, preferable within 24 hours. Ray would always return calls, usually immediately or the same day, very impressive nowadays with any company. His calmness and professionalism calmed us. He knew what he was doing. The day our belongings were brought back to the house was far better than we could have anticipated. The crew showed up promptly and their expertise in moving was amazing. The men moving things in were just as kind and professional as the owner. They were so well mannered and helpful. They went above and beyond what I expected. I changed my mind a couple of times about where I wanted some furniture and they gladly moved things around for me. Boxes were packed so carefully that not even one item was broken. I couldn't recommend American Fire Recovery more highly. It's an A+ company in my book! I hope this sets someone's mind at ease that is going through the stressful time of a house fire and is looking for a fire restoration company they can trust. read more

Excellent experience with this company. The owner Ray was very efficient and attended to all details with great care. Boxes and furniture were appropriately labeled and this made the move back process easier. Clothing was cleaned and returned very timely and Ray was very flexible and accommodating when needed. It was a very positive experience during a very challenging time. Ray was on time, returned calls timely and provided appropriate supervision for his workers. I was very satisfied with this company and highly recommend American Fire Recovery. read more

We had a very scary house fire that started in the chimney flue and spread to the entire attic at 1:00 a.m. The insulation, smoke and water damage was absolutely horrible. We selected American Fire Recovery to do the clean up. There were piles of insulation/water/smoke dust all over everything. Ray and his crew came in as soon as they were allowed and professionally removed, cleaned and stored our belongings for 16 months because our home had to be gutted and rebuilt. When the whole process was over they delivered everything back and put it where it had been before. We were amazed how clean and perfect everything came back. We don't know how they did it, but they did! On a personal note, Ray and his crew were very compassionate and encouraging to us until we were able to get back in our home. If we needed something, we could call them up and they would find the box. I highly recommend American Fire Recovery to anyone that needs this service. Mike and Lisa in Auburn, CA read more

American Fire and Recovery was recommended by our building contractor and our private assessor after our home burned. They were extremely polite and helpful during the immediate clean up after the fire. They promised a lot but then delivered a lot less. The storage of our property within their facility was open to anyone visiting their site and many of our items were lost or stolen. The cleaning process was overpriced given the actual effort put in to the restoration of water damaged goods. Tools were returned covered in rust because they failed to wipe them down with oil or other rust preventatives. They had several items that did not get cleaned before they were returned and had to be sent back for additional cleaning. The biggest issue was the contract guarantee that they would limit services to the maximum that the insurance would cover but then tried to bill us thousands of dollars over the covered amount. If you deal with AFR, ensure you read your contract and follow up to ensure your goods are stored in a secure facility. Make them clearly state their pricing plan and ensure they limit their maximum charges to the limits of your insurance coverage. Last but more important, keep a copy of your inventory and get a guareentee that they will pay full replacement cost for any lost or stolen items, after all, you could have received replacement value if you claimed the loss on your insurance. read more