Opinion - Columns - Kathe Tanner

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

BEST OF: After-fire advice from a survivor

What to do after your home is destroyed by fire

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I compiled these fire-recovery tips for a special section in the San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune in July, 1994, after the Highway 41 fire. I put the column on www.SanLuisObispo.com last year, but am posting an updated version now in case this year’s many California wildfire victims will find it helpful.

An open letter to fire victims from someone who’s been there:

Our hearts go out to you. We do know what you're going through — our home burned down several years ago. That single-house incident didn't have the magnitude of the inferno that wiped out your home or business, but we did have our own little firestorm with high winds, fast-moving flames and backdrafts. It's terrifying, and the anguish is something you really can't explain to someone who hasn't been there.

We hope these tidbits of information we learned after our fire can ease your situation a little.

1. Rely on others during this time of adjustment. Now is not the time to be independent. People really want to be helpful, giving and supportive. We wound up accepting kindnesses from folks we didn't even know then, but do now.

And it’s OK if you don’t want to be around someone else’s lit candles, campfire, barbecue pit or fireplace. We still don’t.

2. Don't assume the remains of things will be right where you left them. We found items 100 feet away from where they'd been before the fire, blown there perhaps by the exploding fire, or maybe by the force of the water from the fire hoses.

3. Keep your options open and go slowly. Don’t let insurance agents or agency representatives rush you. You’re legally entitled to take your time. Once you’ve adapted to the shock, the search through the ashes can be a treasure hunt and the plans for rebuilding can represent a new beginning.

Don't give up too easily or too soon — keep looking through the remains, even though it can be terribly painful. Focus on what’s left rather than what you’ve lost. There may be some amazing things buried in the ruins.

We found intact sculptures (some done by my mother), a sapphire pendant my husband gave me on our first Christmas together, undamaged photos, and some antique silver serving pieces that were my great grandmother's — absolutely astonishing finds.

And cherish the bizarre and humorous. Laughter is so healing. Among the surviving items in our ash pile were a pristine package of absolutely dreadful gag gifts and a cellophane sack of nonmetallic balloons. Go figure.

4. If something's intact but coated with hard-caked soot, gook and grime, don't despair. After testing dozens of products, we discovered Super Clean, a simple engine cleaner from the auto parts store. You can soak things in it straight from the bottle, or dilute it a bit for scrubbing. It’s not toxic. It removes gunk on hard-surfaced items, but won't work on fabric. Wear gloves, because it will dry out your hands. 5. Take time to recover, to plan, to rebuild. It’s not a fast process. Our home burned in April 1994. We moved back to our new home in August 1995.

The state and your county should be helpful. Once your case is classed as a disaster repair, agencies could wave permit fees, speed up the approval process and forego hearings if you keep the home’s size approximately the same.

6. Insurance companies charge you extra for “contents replacement value.” Sounds good, but it’s not easy. After the fire, you present a list of absolutely everything in your house, every sock, toothbrush and spatula. Partway through rebuilding, you should receive the depreciated value of each item you had after your list is approved, but the insurance company will pay you the rest only after you've bought your replacements.

7. Before listing the entire contents of your house, call anyone to whom you might have sent photographs of family gatherings in your home. The photos will jog your memory about what you had, and will prove your lifestyle to the insurance company.

Think of birthdays, holidays, graduations, even pictures you took because Cousin Willie looked so dumb sound asleep upside down on the sofa. That picture proves you had a sofa and what it looked like.

One of your first purchases should be a printer with color-copying capability. Compile the pictures, make copies for the insurance company and then start getting your list down on paper. Keep copies of everything.

8. Replacement value on the house itself means they give you actual cash value (their calculations, not yours) for the house at the beginning of construction, then pay the balance at the end of the reconstruction.

9. Rather quickly, the insurance company paid us for immediate living expenses, then an advance on our contents insurance. First things first: We bought a second set of underwear (drying underwear with a hairdryer is useless) and a jacket so we wouldn’t freeze at night. The next check we received, quite a while later, was reimbursement for things we had on separate insurance riders.

10. Talking to an insurance agent in another office helped. He was totally uninvolved, extremely nice and deciphered several things in the policy that just didn't make sense, because they didn't seem to be in English.

11. If you have willing, helpful listeners in your immediate support group, you're in good shape. We had wonderful friends, including a former co-worker who’d gone through the same thing four months earlier. His advice and love were invaluable.

12. If you're short on listeners, find a trauma support group and go to the meetings. Let out your anger, hurt and frustration or they will make you sick, literally. And good luck!