How do you clear out the air from potentially toxic fumes from a small fire in your house?

Question

Someone was heating something in the microwave using a ziplock bag and it was in there for too long. Lots of gray smoke was in the air and the microwave does not work now. The microwave has been placed in the garage, it's been 2 or 3 days later but the house smells like nasty burnt popcorn smell and it's giving me a headache.

The person half hazardly cleaned up the mess, but my pantry was above the microwave and when I went to re-wash my dishes when it touched water, the water foamed up. As if they were lathered with soap. So i'm thinking the smoke that came out of the microwave i really hope was not extremely toxic? I don't to call the fire department and ask them to clean my house for me to get rid of toxic substances, after it has been a few days when it happened.

What would you do in this situation?

Answer 1

Open all doors and windows and place fans to circulate the air.  

You can check with your local fire department and maybe they can come over with air monitors to take a sniff around.  These monitors should tell you if there is something hazardous in the air.

If you know any people that work in safety, they could also do this for you.

Answer 2

Air the house out thoroughly and wipe down all surfaces. You may see your wipe turn black as there may be a very fine coating of soot everywhere.