Catastrophic Fire Destroyed Everything.

It's not really a trust issue, it's more of a competency issue, as most policyholders are not trained in settling claims. DON'T use a lawyer, instead hire a Public Adjuster, who will take care of every aspect of the claim, for a maximum recovery, at about a third of the cost and half the time(or less) of an attorney. These guys earn their fees many times over compared to going it alone.

You can do that, but lawyers gotta get their fees from someone. I always laugh at the ads that state, "Don't let the insurance companies victimize you," which often should have tacked to that quote, "let us do it to you instead."

Sorry for your Loss I can tell you this. On March 9th 1985 at 4:30 am my home where I lived with my parents burnt. at the time I did HO trains they all melted and the only thing that was left was the rails of the track. I was a kid at the time but you never forget the experience. to this day I make sure I am the last one in bed and don't sleep to well in the winter when the furnace is on. Your right though life does go on and the good thing is everyone is safe.  

We have a subcontractor to handle the inventory as well as the adjuster for private property and has gone out of his way to both jog our memories ( 30 years of personal items) toured the ruins, took photos and gave great advice on submitting our claims. I will only call a lawyer in if there is a problem, rather than pay a retainer for non issues. I was swamped with public adjusters walking up to me before the fire cooled down and it left a sour taste in my mouth. They follow scanner traffic.

Our insurance company to date has been terrific, timely and helpful. The only issue I see is the usability of the foundation slab which has fixed utility connections sunk into it which ties us into the original plans or hiring an architect to design around them. How "usable" is defined might be problematic. They see it as usable in the sense of structural integrity whereas I see it differently. If its a issue, I might pay the piper, have it torn out, sell the lot and buy something else. So far, so good. The train stuff they are willing to accommodate with accurate model numbers and replacement versus purchase cost....that is a long research effort.I should have made an inventory and kept it off site. 

Glad everyone in your family is safe.  I wish you a speedy and stress free recovery from this disaster.

What a disaster.  I am truly sorry for your loss.

It could have been worse, but this is terrible.  Hope you find the other two cats.  As far as 30 years worth of train collection and 2 layouts, I'd be a basket case.  I really sympathize with you Bruce, you are a stronger man than I.  May God continue to give you the strength my friend.

Rich

You can get help in the train inventory process from your old posts.  i know I have seen pictures of your tinplate layout.  You can submit those pictures to insurance and they will help you to remember the individual items. You do have a little off site information.

Bill

Wow. That is horrible.  I heard about that in the news but didn't put 2& 2 together.  Prayers go out to you & your family.  Gives us a lot to think about.  Very glad you guys made it out alive.  

Here's an offer to you - if get the urge to run some trains - I'm just a few miles south of Charlotte - in Fort Mill.  Feel free to take me up on the offer & enjoy my layout  shoot me an email ( it s in my profile) if you want to stop by

Sorry about the loss of your items ... glad to hear all made it out ok .... as you said life is the most important. 

So very sorry for your loss......

What a terrible thing to have happen to you and your family. It is good that no one was hurt and all got out safely. We can only imagine what this would be like, but I am sure it is one of the worst things that could happen to a person. I wish you luck with getting your lives and everything else back together. Hopefully you can return to your home and have a similar life as you had before. I imagine one would never get over something like this completely, but I hope you can you can recover as well as possible.

We should all take your advice about getting things in order just in case. We always think it won't happen to us, but it really can happen to anyone at anytime. I guess you can not be too careful or too prepared for something like this, but getting all your belongings and insurance and etc. up to date and organized is a good start. A good list of one's trains is good, but as you stated earlier, the trains are probably the last thing one would be worried about at a time like this. I wish you the best of luck.

so sorry

best wishes, and thank you for the advice

jerry

So sorry to hear of the loss of your home, that's terrible to be sure.  Equally sad about the loss of your possessions, but the most important thing is no lives were lost.

This is the first time I can remember reading a Forum Member losing everything in a Fire…

I’m very sorry for all the personal Family items you lost in the fire. 

No one got hurt including the Firemen at the scene is Great News.. Lets hope the cats will turn up soon..safe and sound!

Hopefully your Insurance covers 100%  of your loss with full value replacement on all your household items and such. 

Keep us posted and  Take Care…

K.C.

Very Kind Offer, Christopher!....Good Man

Very sorry to hear this. Glad your family is ok. God bless.

Sorry to hear about this.  Thankful that no one was hurt.

Thank you for sharing your experience that the rest of use can (hopefully) learn from it.  Good luck with the rebuilding.

Stuart

My sincere sympathies for your bizarre misfortune. Please keep us posted on your recovery process.

Sure gives all who read it something to think about.

If your wiring was good, there's nothing you could have done to prevent that, or least to have pondered as any real possibility for just the wiring.

But for the rest of us (though my house is 12 years old and was built for us), take a moment to look over your layout for:

• General wiring at the box and into the layout area
• Plugs going to the layout, check for frayed cords or loose items too close to the wires and outlets
• Adequate venting of anything electronic
• Places locos go right after running, they should be in a place where that heat doesn't keep building up
• Caution with soldering irons and other tools during construction and later tinkering. Unplug everything when you're done!
• Never forget, layout are, for the most part, made from mostly easily-burned materials!

So very sorry for your tragedy.  But thank goodness for those fire detectors.  Hope your insurance covers most of the house and contents.

I am printing off my train and book collection sheets now and making a run to bank safe box tomorrow.

Lesson take away, might be good to either have a train insurance rider or find a special policy for trains.  Don't know if insurer would require picture/video of each item.

Chris

I appreciate your generous offer and maybe in the future I can take you up on the offer and as of today, I am scrambling to finalize rental of a temporary house to rent, and other time consuming gauntlets to run...the paperwork is like coming out of retirement to a full time job. Again, thanks for the kindness in your offer...

Bruce

Hope it was not aluminum wiring.  Before I bought our new home, first thing I did with owners permission was pull main panel lid and check for copper wires, then pulled several receptacle and light switch.  All copper.  When I had backup genset installed I insisted all copper wires. 

Don't know if aluminum is still allowed by code.

WOW!!! So sorry, Wish you nothing but the best.

Hey ElectroLiner....for just over two years my karma has been really good to me. Unbelievably so.  I hope some finds its way off to you by you reading this. May it turn into some good......leading to even better!!!!

Terrible news. Very sorry for your loss. Glad no one was hurt. 

No loss of life. Everything else is secondary and can--and will-- be replaced.

I am sorry for your loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

The aluminum wire per-se wasn't bad. It was the utilization of aluminum wiring with the conventional components (switches, receptacles, etc). The two big issues are dissimilar coefficient of expansion. Over time that can result in loose connections. The other issue is corrosion due to the galvanic action of dissimilar metals. Both of these issues could be dealt with w/o a total re-wire job.

While not used in homes it is still commonly used in utility transmission lines. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program....

Gilly

So very,very sorry to hear this.

Art

The wiring wasn't aluminum. The insulation on all wiring was melted away. The engineering firm doing the fire analysis is having an electrical specialist come in and analyse and try to determine how it started, which appears to be in the garage in the main panel. We heard two very loud "pops" and the power went out about five to eight minutes before the fire started....They need some heavy equipment to move fallen beams etc to get a closer look. I am doubtful they can determine it as everything was reduced to ash. The fire was so hot, it reduced our bikes to nothing....and melted 1/2 the siding on our neighbors house. 

sorry about this kind of loss, I can't imagine it either :-|

Could you keep us posted on the cause, if it is ever fully determined. This is very scary thinking our electrical panels could cause a fire like this at any time. Probably a freak thing and I know there can be electrical fires, but this is still worrisome to think about the main panel causing it. It sounds like everything should have been in good order in your panel and was not that old. Usually there is a problem like improper wiring, circuits overloaded, electric heaters too close to flammable items, etc. as reported causes of fires.

Edit, Sorry, I didn't see your last post about the wiring, must have been fiddling with this post while you posted it. It would be great to know the cause and if it could be prevented from ever happening again.

So very sorry Bruce. I know when the time comes people of the forum will help out. I know I will. I changed out a light switch that has been making strange noises today because of your post. Don

quote:

The wiring wasn't aluminum. The insulation on all wiring was melted away. The engineering firm doing the fire analysis is having an electrical specialist come in and analyse and try to determine how it started, which appears to be in the garage in the main panel. We heard two very loud "pops" and the power went out about five to eight minutes before the fire started....They need some heavy equipment to move fallen beams etc to get a closer look. I am doubtful they can determine it as everything was reduced to ash. The fire was so hot, it reduced our bikes to nothing....and melted 1/2 the siding on our neighbors house. 

Not saying that this was the cause, but I understand that some main panels have aluminum busses. I found a chat on the subject. And a whitepaper.

I am saddened by your Loss, but glad you and your family are safe!!!  My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family!

@electroliner..  that just plain sucks..  im sorry for your loss..  really hope your cats were found  ok.   i want to offer you this !!  my wife worked for the MAJOR  US ins. co. for 35 years, just retired.  if you have a "problem" with your carrier,  she can help you navigate the "BS".!!  feel free to contact. e-mail in my profile.  best wishes and good luck to you.

So sorry for your loss, glad you and your family are okay

Alex

I am so very sorry to hear of the fire. stay strong and get through this so you can rebuild. It is so impressive that with a catastrophic event like that you are thoughtful enough to Think of others and warn us.  Thank you and God bless.