Has anybody on here experienced a house fire?

[okiee]

Sunday October 2 was my Birthday and all the guests left my house after the party. i was sitting on the porch by the pond and i hear crackling so im thinking its my neighbor grilling wich Is impossible because she doesnt have a grill and she is 80 years old and lives by herself. Walk around the back and see her fence and my firewood on fire! grab my phone call 911 and grab the hose and put out the fence fire but the firewood was not even near going out. I grab the extinguisher.. nothing. It spread to my sons room on the other side of the brick where we contained it. Its been a nightmare with the smell and the mess. I feel so blessed that we are all okay and nobody was hurt.Has anybody else had a fire and any advice?

 

[HARO]

Thank God you got it stopped before it did any more damage! I can't think of anything more terrifying than fire; helped to fight the 1967 Chapleau fire in northern Ontario... forget how many hundreds of thousands of acres went up in flames. And the loss of animal life is enough to make you cry! Your insurance agent should be able to help with cleanup and de-odorizing. Good luck. John

 

[ididntdoit99]

The first place I lived after moving out of my parents house was a big house, split into 4 tiny little apartments.

Aparently "daddy" downstairs thought it would be a good idea to take a bunch of painkillers and fall asleep with a cigarette in his hand, whole place went up. Luckily, everyone in the other 3 apartments made it out.
"daddy" on the other hand, woke up confused and hot, and ran outside without his 5 year old daughter, if i remember correctly she passed in the hospital the next day, and he spent a fews weeks in the hospital for his burns.

Sorry for your loss, at least everyone is alright, I don't have much advice though, as there was nothing to save at our place, in fact, that is still just an empty lot almost 10 years later now... Did they ever figure out what started the fence and wood on fire?

 

[addy1]

my husbands house burned to the ground, they had the clothes on their backs. There are companies that will help in figuring out the value of lost items. They did hire a company, it turned out to be a 1.5 mill loss to the insurance company, property, belongings, rebuild cost.

so far for me, the only fire "loss" was a wild fire that burned within 200 feet of house we had just put on the market in colorado. It took two years to sale due to the fire.

 

[j.w]

We rented our house out when we moved to Michigan for a couple yrs back in the 80's and our tenants left a pot of grease on the stove and it blistered and partly burned the kitchen walls and cupboards. They didn't tell anyone that it happened and one day the lady that was managing it for us had to make a visit to them for some reason and saw the kitchen and how they had tried to cover up the mess by slapping paint over it. It was hard but the insurance company was finally convinced to pay for damages done by the renters. That insurance company was not a nice company to work w/ for anything. It was Farmers Insurance and the renters took a giant set of weight lifting bars and dropped them on the floor and busted the floor out. The insurance company said they wouldn't pay cuz the tenants weren't trying to harm the property and that it was not intentional............huh? I thought that was what insurance was for..........accidents, right? Got rid of that company!!!

 

[DrCase]

We lost are hunting cabin a few years back,
some one broke in and took a few guns and burned it down
Nothing but ashes were left,it was a tough loss to get over

 

[addy1]

that sucks no reason to burn it after they took the guns.

 

[sissy]

my sons house burned to the ground this past spring and they lost everything and are still fighting with state farm to get a pay out .Believe me these insurance companies fight tooth and nail .They have pics of the contents of the house and shed .The electric company changed the meter on there house while they were in NJ and thats what caused the fire ,something they did lead to the fire starting .They had no close neighbors as they are on 16 acres .The co-op electric company does not want to admit there fault in this .This was his house when it was built 6 years ago .I do not have have pics of the front porch he built or back deck or shed or gazebo

 

[okiee]

Beautiful house your son had Sissy. I bet he is just sick about it.Thanks for the replies! It feels like forever since I have been on here. We have been battling with Farmer's Insurance since day 1 but we knew that was going to happen.They refused to clean my carpet thats 2 weeks old. The firemen tracked mud in and thats understandable but for them not to have it cleaned for us is crazy! Have not heard about how the fire started and my house smells horrible. They restoration company came and loaded all of our clothes and had them cleaned and they put us up in a hotel until they are finished.I feel for people that lost everything and I can't imagine what they went through. Wish I knew of a GOOD insurance company?

 

[j.w]

Oh no you have the dreaded Farmers like we did. I feel so sorry for you, seriously! We switched to PEMCO but they don't work anywhere but here and Oregon. Have you ever heard of Clark Howard on the radio? He's on t.v also. He talks about all kind of products for consumers from soup to nuts. If you google his name he has a place where insurance companies are rated. But for sure if I were you I'd lose Farmers whenever you can! Here I found this for ya:
http://www.clarkhoward.com/topics/insurance-resources/
http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/insurance/10-worst-insurers-in-america/nDFf/

 

[sissy]

yeh farmers and state farm are the worst I have heard .I have Bretherin insurance and they also cover appliance breakdowns too .I have a 500 dollar deductable and it cost 366 dollars a year and 20 dollars more for appliance coverage and that even covers my ride on lawn mowers and my heat pump fridge dishwasher stove garbage disposal microwave and any other larger appliance I have

 

[Oldhead]

glad everything is ok. I've worked in houses with that smell. Here in jersey they use some kind of paint to go over the wood that is scorched but not damaged. I don't worry about my house too much, I'm more worried about my dogs the cat and my pond being without electric.