When I picked up a pack of strawberries at the grocery store, I stood there for a moment and smelled their fresh aromas and examined how beautifully red they were. I could almost taste how juicy and sweet they would be.

In each edition of ANSI/IICRC’s S500 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration, dating back to 1994, the mitigation contractor’s stated first priority on a loss site has remained clear: “Eliminate safety hazards”. I am certain that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus) or COVID-19 (the disease) are not what the authors of the standard had in mind.

The fundamental idea on containment is simple: keep one or more contaminants in or out of an area. Quite literally, a containment is an isolation system.

That was then and this is now! While we would all like to forget 2020, 2021 is a new chance to decide where you want to be!