Apr 13 2008
What To Do After A House Fire
We live in a tiny hamlet, down a back road in Ontario. We do not have a fire department. Here, if your house catches fire, you either put it out yourself or you stand back and watch it burn.
Our family couldn’t put the house fire out. By the time we awoke the house was full of smoke. In two minutes, the floorboards were on fire. In six minutes, we couldn’t go in anymore to grab our belongings. I’m just guessing at the duration of minutes. It’s hard to say, when you’re watching your life go up in smoke, how long things really take.
The steps we took after our house fire may be different from yours. I’m not giving advice here, merely stating our own actions and path to recovery. I’m writing this because I could find no concrete or sincere help online. I do hope this helps my readers in some small way.
What We Did During Our House Fire
During the fire, we scrambled about. Our first job was to wake our daughter, bundle her up and get her outside. Second was the dogs. One dog ran back into the house and hid. He knew something terrible was going on, he always felt safe under my office desk – so that’s where he hid. We got him out and kept him out, and he’s still fine today.
My husband and I ran in and out of the burning house a number of times – trying to stay calm and grab the things that were important to us. For the most part, this was futile and stupid. I did manage to grab my daughter’s favorite blanket (at her request), my own purse and wallet, and some family photos.
I also grabbed a few items that were ridiculous. Product of smoke inhalation – it gets into your brain and really slows you down. We ran in many times without knowing what we were going for, risking our lives in the process, and standing dumbfounded in the smoke wondering what we could/should retrieve.
The next day we spent hours in the hospital emergency room as a result. I had a steroid puffer for two weeks after. None of the items I retrieved in the last three trips were worth the lung damage.
Once we couldn’t go back into the house anymore we began moving things away from the house – the barbeque, items in the shed, the lawnmower. This too was a waste of time because in our panic and smoke-filled stupidity we were not strong and we did not move them far enough away from the house.
What follows below are the smart steps we took. After the house fire.
What To Do After A House Fire
If you don’t have a fire deparment in your region, call the Hydro or Utilities company. Chances are your electric wires are bouncing and snapping on the ground. At best, your road-side transformer will have blown and your neighbors won’t be affected. At worst, your family or your animals (we have horses) could be in danger.
Call your insurance company immediately. We waited until morning – still in shock – from a friend’s house. Anytime during the first 24 hours is acceptable I would think.
Find a temporary place for your family. Stay with friends or relatives (especially if you have children) if you can. You’ll be in shock for a while and need all the support you can get. Someone to make a meal for you, cuddle with your children, and just listen to the emotional shifts you’ll go through, is more helpful than you can ever imagine.
Find a second temporary place for your family. Staying under a friend’s roof is helpful, but within a few weeks you will need to regroup as your own family unit. Insurance will cover moderate temporary living expenses. You should access this (you paid for it to be included in your premium and the insurance company fully expects you to utilize it). Even though you will not be in your own home, with your own possessions, the healing process truly begins when you and your family can be alone and functioning as a unit again.
Stay in touch with your claims adjuster – trusting that they are taking the necessary steps to return you to a normal life. Within two days of the fire you should have a check for emergency clothes, school supplies, food, living. Nothing else will happen until the cause of the fire can be determined. This can take days, weeks or a month – dependant on your fire, location, and actual cause.
We have a very good insurance company, and one of the best adjusters within the company. Our determination took 4 weeks – which may seem long, but remember, we were down a back road, the house had been burned to the foundation, it was winter and access to the property was difficult, and the cause was not easy for the lab to determine…
Start calling your creditors. This includes your mortgage company, any loan companies you deal with. And call the IRS or Canada Revenue office – especially if tax time is near. You may be late with your taxes (since you no longer have receipts, log books, or Income Statements).
Look After Your ‘Self’ and Your Children’s Emotions – This is harder to do than imagined when you’ve never had a house fire, but after the fire everyone’s emotions run wild. Even though I am a strong woman who has little connection with material possessions I still had suicidal thoughts. As another example, our daughter, who enjoys her possessions had everything and more replaced almost immediately, had emotional trauma. Talk to people you can trust with your heart. If you’re suicidal, get help or don’t allow yourself to be alone. Watch and communicate with your child – work and house plans and insurance documents can wait – the effect of trauma on a young person can not.
Decision Time
Will you rebuild?
On the old foundation?
On the same property?
Will you buy another house?
I will need to come back to this article to finish later – What to Do After A House Fire is an involved topic, after all.
My 83 year old dad, sister and her son (19 yr old dad) had a house fire the end of January. Everyone got out safely and damage was to everything but the house framing. Dad stayed w/ my family 6 weeks and 8 weeks w/ oldest sister & husband. Then he moved back into the empty house which has only water and a mattress set, not much more. Sister is with another brother for now…it’s very hard. Nephew stays at his girlfriends families house with his baby for now. The three had depended on one another for years, sharing one car.
We tried to rent him a couple of houses thru distant family and a friend sister…unsuccessfully…everyone has their own needs & adjendas and less compassion than I’d hoped.
We are looking for assistance for him…he had fire insurance but does not have enough money and the where-with-all to get the house back together on his own…and we live a half hour or more away with gas prices rising steadily. I don’t know where this is all going but I know life somehow goes on. It has been devestating for the three of them.
Hi guys – an hour ago we received a call from the Blue Ridge fire department. Our beloved log cabin was struck by lightening and has burned completely to the ground.
All of our important belongings are there. We stay in town during the week and live at the cabin on the weekends. Our pictures, the antique ornaments from Germany that belonged to my great grandmother, everything from our 35 years of married life together and our old red Jeep we loved like a pet are gone. We are overwhelmed with grief.
We were in the process of rebuilding it planning to move in to stay in the next year or so. The fireman said we were lucky not to be there because the bolt of lightening was huge and just blew up the cabin like a bomb hit it. He said we would not have made it out. We had our grandson and our pets with us last weekend and I am so glad it didn’t happen then, but so sad it is all gone.
The cabin, the jeep, the garden, the mountain we lived on all the birds, the bear, the deer the hemlock forest that surrounds us it was our life all that we lived for. I am searching tonight for information looking to find what our next steps will be only because there is nothing else to do it is too late to go to see what is left and nothing we can do but wait until the morning light to pick up the pieces.
I need to make a list of what we lost…where do I start?
Room by room.
Walk through your home (in your mind) and type it all into a word processing program.
Then get your family members to do the same.
Don’t expect to remember it all right away. Don’t expect to have it done in a few hours.
I’m sorry. Fire is a horrible thing and so is losing everything you ever owned. Having been through, and still in, the tragedy myself, I understand your pain.
Best of luck and strength to you and your family,
Laura
Wife & I, married 10 years & have 4 beautifull girls 9 & under. We had a house fire 3 weeks ago. It desroyed our 2 vehicles & also my 2003 harly davidson I just paid off 10 months ago. What is so hard to take about it is all 3 vehicles had only liability! homeowner insurance won’t cover a single penny! Even though all 3 are insured under same insurance company that covers our home.
I’m extremely thankfull to GOD for keeping family safe.
My wife lost hundreds of old & rare books.
Thousands of family pictures. These are irreplaceable & are very hard to lose.
Our 4 children lost everything that they ever have had & of value to them.
This fire that destroyed our home & turned our family upside down I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. It’s been one hell of a monster.
Keep a close eye on the ins. adjusters that are suppose to be on your side.
I pray for GOD’s hand be on us all. & that strength,wisdom & knowlege be added,
Leif
Hi Leif. I am sorry for your loss and I truly understand what you’re going through – although I only have one child to assist through this tough time.
I too lost many books, photos, videos of my daughter when she was younger, etc.
You do get through it, and you’ll all be stronger for it – I know it seems hard to believe when everyone is still in shock.
There is a lot of healing in re-building a life – whether you build a home or buy a new one. There is a lot of growth in letting worldly possessions ‘go’.
You sound like a man of faith so I’m certain you know that your show of strength during this trying time will encourage others to have faith.
As for the insurance adjusters – thankfully ours are top notch in looking after their clients (Lanark Mutual in Ontario, Canada) and we were under-insured – but again, even if you don’t come out ‘even’ it doesn’t seem to matter in the end when your children are sitting around the dinner table with you and you don’t have to deal with that kind of loss.
Stay strong, my best to your family. If there is anything I can do, don’t hesitate to leave a note.
Cheers, Laura Childs
I had a house fire over thanksgiving weekend2007 (I was visiting my boyfriends parents) When I flew back home I was met at the airport by family..My house had burned to the ground that morning… It was a terrible blow.Luckily it happened in the morning after my mom came and fed the dogs and put them out on their runs, however I lost the beloved cats ,and after inspections ,the fire department came up with nothing to pinpoint but a back burner from the gas stove was in the on position.We now believe that the cats may have jumped on the stove just at the right angle and turned on a burner. I want to put it out there that ANYONE that has a gas stove to turn the gas off after every use or get those child safty knobs. (It was said by a friend that it was a freak thing that would never happen again…It did while I was home this month …Munch ,my crazy kitty was chasing something around and hit the strove. No flames..but a short while later was the heavy smell of propane)
I was underinsured and had no content insurance.
Lessons are learned and life goes on.
I wish all of you the best that are going through the many emotions of fire related loss.
Lisa:
Thank you for this message!
As you know I lost my cat in a house fire, but what you didn’t know was that in the kitchen design for the new house will be a propane stove! I will certainly take your advice and get those child safety knobs – even though we train our cats to stay off counters, you never know what they do when you’re not home!
We too were underinsured. For just $5 a month more we would have been a lot more comfortable in rebuilding our home after the fire. Oh well, hindsight…
Laura:
Thank you so much for having this site. It’s been exactly 12 days since I lost everything to a housefire on my 2nd floor apartment (except for all my important documents which i stored in a safe). Unfortunately, the water damage was so severe in the 1st floor that the family also lost their home and many of their possessions.
Thankfully, no one was injured, but my house cats did die of smoke inhalation.
For the first time this morning I felt the need to talk to someone whose been through this experience. I sought information from the internet only to find that there really isn’t much info about dealing with the trauma of losing all your life’s possessions in a housefire. This is why I am so grateful that you’re available.
I read your article and your suggestions were great. I took most of them immediately. Unfortunately I did not have renter’s insurance. Although someone mentioned to me that I might be covered under my Landlord’s homeowner’s insurance which i have no desire to inquire.
The agencies that were of most help to me were: The American Red Cross who paid for temporary stay at a hotel including meals. They also gave me a credit card with a sufficient amount for myself, my husband and step-daughter to buy some clothes. Within days we found an apartment to live in and The Red Cross paid for the first months rent.
I went to Social Services to see if they could offer emergency relief funds, but i did not qualify due to my high income.
I work for the Federal Government and applied for the Employees Relief Fund, and am still waiting to see if they will help me.
Also, i applied for relief from the neighborhood local agencies (United Way, Community Action Center, Salvation Army), and one supplied our family with new living room furniture using a Voucher at a local furniture store.
The most help my family received was from our Churches, family and friends who supplied us with money, food, and most of our household furnishings and appliances so that even as I write this, I must admit that we are quite comfortable. Thanks be to God who loves us enough to supply His provisions through all the loving, caring and generous people in our lives.
Nevertheless, with all the good that has come out of this mishap (for some reason, i’m afraid to call it a tragedy), I feel very different within my being.
My emotions are all over the place. I want to blame a certain family member for causing the fire, and I’m so angry. Also, I feel so bad and guilty for the people in the 1st floor apartment whose lives were affected due to the fire that started in my place.
I tried going back to work to get my life back in order–trying to feel “normal” after all the running around and fixing I’ve been doing. It’s just weird how i can’t sit still. I feel fidgety and edgy like there is so much more that has to get finished.
Also, i feel indebted to the overwhelming outpour of generosity. I think now i owe everyone, like a thank you card is not enough. Like now i have to do something for them: like invite them over for dinner even though i’m just not ready for that right now. I feel like I have to repay these people for their generosity otherwise I’ll be considered an ingrate. I almost feel guilty for receiving their help even though i know that if the shoe was on the other foot, I’d be one of the first ones to help out someone I loved in this situation. But i just can’t seem to deal with this position of humility and feeling like i owe them.
I also feel that now that people have given me so much, they are going to be watching me and what i do with what they’ve given me. I feel that if i don’t respond appropriately to their generosity, perhaps they’ll be offended. Or worse, what if another fire happened, will they get mad and think that I’m playing victim? Why am I having these thoughts? Why do I care so much about what other people are observing about me? Why do I feel like I have to prove anything to anybody?
Also, why aren’t I grieving the loss of all I lost: my cats, my jewelry, all my sentimental possessions? I probably need counceling.
To end this on a good note (which i always feel compelled to do), this episode in my life has changed my perceptions of things dramatically. I don’t see anything the same anymore, like all of a sudden the sunrise is extremely beautiful, and people and relationships are the most important part of living!
Thanks for letting me vent. I would love to hear from you.
Our neighbors’ house burned yesterday. It wasn’t a total loss but they just don’t have money or insurance. The local Red Cross wasn’t much help, told the mom to call back when she figured out what she needed. As if her brain hadn’t had enough right then! The Fire Auxiliary was much better, brought in food, sat with the kids & talked, and just generally made themselves useful without being pushy. I wish I knew more about how to help them. We don’t have much money either. The mom’s parents are gone, kids’ father absent. She has no one really. We dug up extra sheets and blankets last night & let them stay with us. But we can’t do that for long, much as I would like to, she’s been a great friend and neighbor for the last 3 years. If anyone has any other suggestions… Thanks!
My family had a house fire on may 31st of 09 and of course , my husband was just out of hospital and we were 270 miles from home . we started getting calls and messages on are cell phones , and pics from a friend watchin , well it was a tragety but life goes on , what iam looking for is a answer if you are a renter in a house and no insurance can you file your loss on your federal taxes , i have kept all reciepts ,gas , motel , food ,clothing and even the reciepts that pertained to my SUV as it sat next too the house and got burnted but was only facial damage ,