WEST BOUNTIFUL — When hurricane-force winds hit the Wasatch Front on Dec. 1, 2011, teams from Belfor Property Restoration went to work.
Among their projects was repairing a home in Weber County that had its roof completely blown off.
Linn Griffith, sales executive for the firm, shared a little about the company with members of the Bountiful Breakfast Exchange Club last week. The firm has its Utah office in North Salt Lake.
Belfor began in Europe 66 years ago and has grown until it’s now in 28 countries with 140 offices in North America.
Known for several large commercial cleanups, the company’s “bread and butter,” remains residential disaster cleanup, Griffith said.
In the past eighteen months, the company has completed $700,000 in Utah fire restorations after two major fires in Utah County.
Unlike some disaster cleanup businesses, Belfor maintains a minimal staff in Utah. But when a major disaster occurs, they can have 50 people here within 24 hours, Griffith said.
Belford staffers have recently been sent to areas in the east and midwest where a high number of tornadoes and hurricanes have occured, Griffith said.
Five years ago, there was a fire in the top few floors of the Monte Carlo hotel and casino in Las Vegas. All 32 floors of the hotel, the casino and restaurants had to be closed down at the cost of $1 million a day, Griffith said.
The hotel managers told Belfor they wanted everything operational as soon as possible, no matter the cost, so Belfor brought in 1,000 employees who worked 12-hour shifts for 14 days, Griffith said.
Following an earthquake in Chile, Walmart officials brought Belfor in with the directive to get the store open as soon as possible so earthquake victims could have access to food, clothing and other products.
Griffith said they shrink-wrapped the entire store to protect the building from rain while the crews worked.
The Belfor symbol is a black circle surrounded by two red parentheses. Griffith said the symbol is as well known throughout Europe as is the symbol used by fire departments.
For more information check out the August 23 edition of Davis Clipper.
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