Keep my brother in your thoughts.

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Recently his house burned to the ground. Fire started near the water heater. He rolled over in bed around 3 AM, flipped his eyes open and register light in the family room. He got up to look and the flames were licking the eaves. He grabbed his pants and called 911. The smoke alarms went off as the windows were exploding. He got out in the nick of time, with pants, shoes, jacket, keys and his checkbook. He has lost everything else. What a mess. It will take months to settle with the insurance company before any rebuilding can begin.

Fortunately his shop, truck, tractor, and motorcycle survived. Shop was scorched but didn't burn. But no power without a building permit. So while he still has those things, he cannot use his shop. Building permit quite a ways down the road. I've offered him a place to stay but he so far has declined. He is staying in a neighbor's guest house so he can be close by and help prevent any vandalism. He lives about 6 miles from me. I think when he feels he has overstayed in that guest house, he will come here. I hope so. I wanna help but he is being stubborn.
 
Tough situation there Carol...

Here's to a speedy rebuild and recovery...

Just glad he was able to get out and has his health.
 
So sorry to hear about this, glad he got out OK. Will keep him in our thoughts.

A unfortunate reminder, but everyone might do the recall check on the valve on your water heater and furnace. I know there were several out a few years back. Also keep the flammables stored in the proper places.
 
Glad to hear it was just stuff that got burnt up, it can be replaced, thank goodness your brother made it out..

Thoughts and prayers sent your family's way!:wave:
 
I had him over for dinner tonight. He got a demo permit which allows him to start cleaning up. So he has something to do. That is a good thing.

His next goal is getting power back. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks. When he gets the power back, he will get an RV to live in as he rebuilds. Seems the insurance could take months to settle.

I am glad he got out in time. He figures that from the time he discovered the flames until the whole thing was engulfed was less than 10 minutes. The report from the fire department logged everything minuted by minute from the time he called 911. He is probably right. Noted on the report, smoke alarms and exploding glass heard by the dispatcher. And he was inside when he made that call.

He has a cell now. I insisted. He is on my family plan.

My advise to all. Take some pictures of your buildings inside and out and go visit your insurance agent. Then review your policy until you KNOW what is covered. The inspector already found "discrepancies" in his policy. What that will cost him, he does not yet know. Truly, the first criteria for the insurance company is to deny the claim. Failing that, to reduce as much as is possible the amount of the claim. And watch the games they play with replacement cost coverage. It ain't what you think!
 
Carol, you are very right about the whole insurance thing, we just got a rude wake up on something, we have a "Homeowners" insurance policy, a very standard thing to have here in Japan, it covers a lot of stuff, fire etc, or a broken washing machine filling the house with water etc, and it also covered riding your bicycle around town, if you hit someone on your bike, a car, motorcycle, scooter or a pedestrian, we were covered, WERE covered.... :doh:

Seems last year the insurance company dropped the bicycles covered thing :huh: I'm sure it is in the small print somewhere, but until we double checked, as I'm riding a bicycle around now a lot, we did not know, they kind of sneaked that one by us.

On the good side, I was able to buy one years worth of coverage that also covers me up to $10,000 for any hospital visits, and up to $20,000 if I hurt someone else. In the case of death for about $200,000 to me or someone else, all this for about $15 a year, money well spent I think.

I agree with Carol, check your policy and take pictures with time stamps on them.

Cheers!
 
The smoke alarms went off as the windows were exploding.
:eek::eek::eek:

Wow, was that just an indication of how fast things went, or was there no smoke alarm near the HWH ?

Just a reminder to us all -- change the batteries in your smoke alarms every year! Also, make sure you have enough of them. I think code here is now requiring a smoke detector in every bedroom. Our house predates that, but we put them in ourselves -- so we've got one in each bedroom (battery) and another outside in the upstairs hall (on house current), another on the main floor outside the kitchen, and another in the basement just outside the furnace room.

I wanna help but he is being stubborn.

:doh:
(sarcasm alert) Gee, Carol, I've never heard of people acting like that, and any resemblance at all to me is purely coincidence...


Best wishes to you and he, and I hope for your sake that the insurance agent is an actual compassionate human being as opposed to a corporate troll.

(side story: totaled my van last spring, and while the whole car-shopping thing was a headache, my insurance experience was positive, had no headaches at all when dealing with them, got a decent payout and so on.)
 
Comment on the smoke alarms. There were two. One quite near the hot water heater. However, to work, you need smoke. It got so hot that spontaneous combustion was occurring and flames were licking at the ceiling before the smoke got to the alarms. He heard the alarm nearest the hot water heater but the flames were already on the ceiling.

As the details of his experience come out, there are some pretty scary things to consider, not the least of which is our assumptions about how things work; i.e., so far, insurance companies and smoke alarms.

Carol is taking pictures today of her little piece of heaven. They'll be on a small flash drive and in the drawer of a friend, 20 miles from my house. Now I have to figure out how to get the date stamp on them. Thanks for that tip. Also making copies of my insurance policy and sticking that into the envelope.

Heads up, folks. An hour or two of simple documenting may save you tons of headaches down the road. Life is never as secure as we'd like it to be, is it?
 
Sorry for your brothers loss. Items can be replaced.

I also have pictures of our belongings. I keep a set at my in laws and a set at the wife's beauty shop. We have a bunch of neighbors that keep copys of special paperwork and pictures at the shop.
 
Carol is taking pictures today of her little piece of heaven. They'll be on a small flash drive and in the drawer of a friend, 20 miles from my house. Now I have to figure out how to get the date stamp on them. Thanks for that tip. Also making copies of my insurance policy and sticking that into the envelope.

I suggest burning a CD-R instead.

...

hang on, I was going to make the point that at least no one could accuse you of faking the dates on it, but of course, you could just burn another CD with fake dates.

So instead, maybe ask the insurance agents out there what they suggest for properly documenting your goods.
 
Top