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Apartment fires or why I really do need a car

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Tarazet

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So this afternoon I stepped off the bus from work, walked up the hill to come home and I'm greeted with a lovely three-alarm fire shooting out of a ground-floor apartment in my complex. My camera was inside, so I wasn't able to capture it, but someone took snaps of the aftermath:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vision024/1363262585/

1363262585_359518d7f0.jpg

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19 fire engines, 50 people displaced, 5 injured, at least three units completely ruined, estimated $300K in damages. I was the only person out of everyone I spoke with who had renter's insurance. Unfortunately, what I don't have is a car, because it has been in the shop for two weeks. I'm camping out in my parents' house temporarily, but there's no public transit nearby.. and work is 60 miles away.

It started in the unit of a handicapped woman on a respirator, and rumor has it there was a cigarette involved. Why she thought a cigarette would go well with an oxygen tank is beyond me.
 
They're not letting anyone stay. They have to do their investigation.. and even if I could get in, there's no power, no water, no gas, and much of the complex is unnavigable.
 
geez, sorry to hear about this, but at least it's good that your apartment and belongings were undamaged, and most of all that you're okay.

that's pretty much your worst nightmare if you live in an apartment building. knowing that your stuff is pretty much equally in the hands of your possibly irresponsible neighbours can be a little unnerving sometimes. if they happen to start a fire/attract pests, etc. there's not much you can do about it.
 
I need a car because I work 60 miles away from here, and I also was supposed to go to a rehearsal tonight which is 20 miles out of the way. I depend on that income.. not working would cost me $120 a day and not going to choir will probably wind up costing me $150 today. I'm going to need to work with Allstate and see what arrangements can be made to keep me going. I have one more month on the lease with the apartment, so I can't just walk away from it without penalties.
 
Not that I'm aware of... the Red Cross was there to set people up in a hotel that needed a place to stay. They can't be expected to keep that many apartments available for an emergency like this.
 
sonarrat said:
It started in the unit of a handicapped woman on a respirator, and rumor has it there was a cigarette involved. Why she thought a cigarette would go well with an oxygen tank is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Because if you need a respirator for what I'm assuming is emphysema, chances are you're REALLY, REALLY addicted to cigarettes.
 
Why people dont get renters insurance is beyond me. Its cheap as hell and covers your shit against just about anything. A friend of mine had her laptop stolen, when I asked her if she had renters insurance, she looked at me like I was speaking Klingon to her.
 
sonarrat said:
I have one more month on the lease with the apartment, so I can't just walk away from it without penalties.
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Wait, so they wont let you stay there, but you still have to pay rent for the next month?
 
gamerecks said:
Why people dont get renters insurance is beyond me. Its cheap as hell and covers your shit against just about anything. A friend of mine had her laptop stolen, when I asked her if she had renters insurance, she looked at me like I was speaking Klingon to her.
Click to expand...

It's the same thing as going to the doctor, it requires finding somebody, making an appointment, going there, filling out paperwork, etc.

If I could one-click renters insurance on Amazon, I'd already have it.

But since getting my bike, I really want it, since I think in the event of me having a bike accident, it would also cover damage to things like my laptop in my backpack.
 
goodcow said:
It's the same thing as going to the doctor, it requires finding somebody, making an appointment, going there, filling out paperwork, etc.

If I could one-click renters insurance on Amazon, I'd already have it.

But since getting my bike, I really want it, since I think in the event of me having a bike accident, it would also cover damage to things like my laptop in my backpack.
Click to expand...

Do you have auto insurance? Just call them up, tell them you want to add renter's insurance, and they will set it all up. You just have to drop by and sign and give them a check.
 
Dice Man said:
Do you have auto insurance? Just call them up, tell them you want to add renter's insurance, and they will set it all up. You just have to drop by and sign and give them a check.
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I don't even have a driver's license, I live in New York City.

That's also why I should really get renters insurance, for the bike, since I started commuting to work by bike this year.
 
goodcow said:
I don't even have a driver's license, I live in New York City.

That's also why I should really get renters insurance, for the bike, since I started commuting to work by bike this year.
Click to expand...

http://www.statefarm.com/jscript/easysrch.asp?

There's a link - look an agent up by your zip code and pick an agent. Then there's an option to e-mail them so you don't have to deal with calling or going over there except when you absolutely have to. They'll get everything set up for you.
 
Cauliflower of Love said:
How does renters insurance work anyway?
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Renters insurance covers your belongings in your apartment, usually up to a certain dollar amount. Mine is 16,000. It covers your stuff from the usual, Fire, Theft, Volcano, Missles, Plane Crashes. If you get displaced, the insurance should have coverage to put you up in a hotel for a certain amount of time. Some people think that if the owner has insurance on the building that it covers their stuff, which it doesnt.
 
This reminds me that I only have fifteen thousand in renter's insurance.

.........I'm going to need to budget money towards the purchase of an additional forty thousand worth of insurance.




I bet my video game collection alone would be the fifteen large. I don't want to even think about our new bed, all our baby stuff, my leather recliner, computer stuff with a 22" Lacie monitor that I couldn't replace. .... man. ...



sonarrat, let us know if we can help you with anything, advice or anything. I'm sure you're getting some of our prayers.

good luck with all that.
 
Apartment fires scare the fuck out of me - especially because of my two Jack Russells being locked in there when we go to work everyday.

If I lost them in a fire I don't know how I would cope... :(
 
Cauliflower of Love said:
How does renters insurance work anyway?
Click to expand...

It also covers medical liability. I'm required to get renters insurance by my lessor and through State Farm, it ended up costing no more than $10 a month. I just paid for the entire year up front. And I ended up getting a $50 return on my car insurance for getting more insurance through them.
 
sooperkool said:
the fact that your apartment complex is damaged by the fire will allow you to break your lease without penalty.
Click to expand...

If this is the case, that is very good. I would need to wait until it's safe to get movers in though.
 
Amazing.. I just spoke with the fire station and some services are already restored. I'm going to go and check it out, but I'm not expecting to stay overnight.
 
sonarrat said:
It started in the unit of a handicapped woman on a respirator, and rumor has it there was a cigarette involved. Why she thought a cigarette would go well with an oxygen tank is beyond me.
Click to expand...

You already answered your question. :P

I hope everything goes well though. :|
 
Anyone ever make a claim with renter's insurance? Do you need to show receipts of everything you purchased? I have renter's insurance, but thankfully never had to use it. Should I take pictures of everything in the apartment for later?
 
Youch... looks like you dodged a bullet there.
Golf clap @ the insurance... it's totally worth it for the peace of mind.
 
dextran said:
Anyone ever make a claim with renter's insurance? Do you need to show receipts of everything you purchased? I have renter's insurance, but thankfully never had to use it. Should I take pictures of everything in the apartment for later?
Click to expand...

I started my claim with Allstate today, and they are telling me to track all my expenses and keep the receipts. They will reimburse me for the loss of use of my apartment from day to day (rent divided by number of days in the month times some multiplier, comes to about $32 a day for me), and I can also claim the cost of the train tickets I will now need to buy to get to work and back ($18.50 a day, ouch). After seeing the damage to my apartment, or rather the total lack thereof, I'm not going to include any of my belongings in the claim. It's not like I have any way of writing off a thin layer of soot on my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga or my Wii, and it certainly wouldn't be over the $1000 deductible.

And I'm getting my car back tomorrow, after parting with $500.
 
it's too bad you don't have a van. you could live in it

you know, down by the river.

i kid i kid. 18.50 a day is nothing. you should ask about getting them to cover a hotel room while you look for a new place. the terms of your policy should say something about that.
 
They could cover a hotel room, but I'm just choosing not to do that. At least here I know I can sleep at night, and I'll have some support..

I have people telling me now that I should claim for replacement of anything electronic if there's even minor smoke damage. That would mean my Wii, Saturn, HDTV, digital keyboard, laptop..
 
Update: my insurance adjuster and Allstate's fire inspector will visit the apartment tomorrow and survey the damage. They're expecting to have to temporarily move everything out and move it into storage so that the recovery unit can repaint all the walls and possibly redo the carpet and tile, so my insurance will cover those charges as well. She gave me a ballpark figure of $10,000, where I have coverage up to $25,800.
 
:/

I need advice now.

They are saying now that the apartment may not be re-opened to residents for 3 months. Allstate is going to cover me for up to 3 months' storage of my possessions, plus cleanup and replacement of anything not salvageable, plus up to 1 year's loss of use of the apartment.

Should I start looking for a new apartment? I like the complex and would like to stay if possible, but... it's not looking good.
 
Grar... what a pile of shit. :(

I'm looking at a $10,000 claim.. not including the payouts for loss of use and living expenses.
 
My wife and I pay something like a flat $150 for the year TOTAL for $15,000 of insurance for our apartment.

You'd be a fool not to take advantage of that. Supposedly its so cheap because a lot of people shockingly don't realize it exists....As obviously noted by the OP who luckily HAD the smarts to get it.
 
I paid even less than that, and my coverage is $25,800. In a sick way, it's almost like winning the lottery, except that you get a massive amount of suckage with your payout.
 
it is what it is. think about how fucked you would be if you didn't have a policy right now.

i think you should look for a new place. i know housing in SF is pretty shit, but so is that commute.

you might as well try to claim smoke damage to sensitive electronics too. why the hell not. it will be best if you can bring up evidence that smoke actually damages such things, too.
 
I'm claiming smoke damage to everything. There isn't a single thing in the apartment that didn't get infiltrated with a layer of soot. They've been told they have to pack out, so they're going to ship everything to a warehouse in Hayward, inventory it and do a salvage effort. The digital piano is going to a specialized repair shop so they can check it out. It only makes sense that they would try to repair/salvage everything that was worth saving, both to reduce costs for them and to make it less likely that I would run out of coverage before I ran out of damages.
 
interesting. hope it all works out for you. it's likely that i have no conception of the amount of soot that's running around in the air when something like that happens. i can imagine that a serious amount of the stuff could fuck pretty much anything up though.
 
Smoke is very thick, sticky, clingy and conducts electricity. It's especially bad in this case because there was a significant amount of asbestos that burned, not to mention all the plastic and paint. I took my laptop that was sitting on the bed and tried to clean it with rubbing alcohol. I got underneath, inside, took off the keyboard and swabbed down underneath. I got to everything I could possibly reach. When I put it back together, it still stank like it had been through a fire.

And I have no idea how they think they're going to be able to salvage all of my sheet music. I had thousands of dollars worth of books ruined.
 
If I didn't already have renter's insurance, this would definitely be my wake-up call. Nice job on having that, and for any renters reading who don't have it, GET IT NOW. It's cheap as hell, and while you may be the most careful person in your building, you can never account for the behavior of your neighbors.
 
ouch. that seriously sucks. maybe you should look for a building that doesn't allow fire. like a no-smoking dormitory with a sushi bar or something.
 
The mind-blowing thing is that this lady has to have signs on her door warning people against smoking or lighting fires nearby because she's on oxygen.. and she goes and drops a match on her tube. Don't people think?
 
Well, it was an unsuccessful one if it was, because she lived and now has to live with the fact that she caused $500,000 in damage, not counting renters' property losses.
 
I spoke with the attorney for the complex yesterday. I will be sent a prorated rent refund of about $700, and he gave me an estimate of one month before my wing of the complex would be opened again. The left wing will be closed for several months for reconstruction, meaning about $25,000 in lost income for the complex each month. No word yet on whether they're suing the woman who started the fire, but somehow I doubt she could afford to cough up six figures if she was handicapped, on oxygen and staying in a ground-floor door apartment by herself.
 
Update: when I can move back in (still probably a month out), they're still going to be doing construction on the building for several months afterwards. I'm considering going fuck it, and just moving to San Francisco. I might as well milk my insurance for as long as my old apartment is out, but it's never too early to start looking. I think the Bayshore area will be best for me as my workplace is planning a move to Brisbane anyway..
 
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