What I do for a Living

It was an evening, I was home playing in the basement with my kids. The basement prior to kids was my movie theatre room and post kids is now a playroom, that looks like Toys R Us. While we were playing my phone went off, A fire had broken out in a residence on the other side of the county. My first thought was I hope it is contained to the bathroom at least, and I hope everybody is ok. My 2nd thought was I need to go help.

I pulled up in my Paul Davis Truck just as the Fire Department was extinguishing the Fire. The Fire Marshal said turn your warning lights on busy street, no injuries, the son was called and is on his way and its a Hoarder situation. I thought ok; well we have specialist that deal with Hoarders as needed lets see. I then met the owner (My new Friend) who is 75 and has his moments but otherwise very much with it. He explained fire was in the bathroom smoke poured out into the house and there is a path to walk but otherwise he has alot of trains and parts. After talking with him and determining he is ok just needs his house secure and his trains taken care of I said lets sit and talk with the Son. We had a very nice conversation the Son (My other new friend) the dad and myself, to come up with a plan to present to the insurance company and to file a claim. They called the insurance company who said an adjuster would be out the next day. The son said they wanted to think about things; I said you absolutely should think, do your research and talk to people and then make the decision that is best for you and your family. I think whomever you choose would really like to be here when the adjuster arrives so everyone is on the same page but I won't contact you, you contact me with what you decide. He said since I'm here he would like the house secure and boarded I said no problem and had my on call team come and board/secure the house with my help and materials on my truck. The price of gas is crazy but this is why I have everything needed to board up a house so we can quickly secure the scene when needed but then I left, hoping I explained as best I could how I could help. I passed several other restoration companies and public adjusters coming to talk to them as well and like every meeting anybody has, the drive home my mind is racing thinking; I just want to help and I hope I said everything I can do for them.

2 Hours later the phone rang it was the Son who said the Insurance adjuster is coming tomorrow morning at 11 can we meet at 10 to discuss moving forwards. I said absolutely I'll be their. The next morning we Son, Dad and myself had a very nice meeting. I outlined as the emergency recovery coordinator I'd like to coordinator his returning to normal. I want to make sure he has a place to stay (Usually Insurance paid for) we will if need be, Power restored (PECO) coming out, Contents Team pack out of the house and Mitigation started. These of course being the main points. The son was saying lets do a walk thru with the insurance adjuster then go from there nothing else yet. After walk thru insurance adjuster determined this is going to be a large loss meaning we need to have a large loss adjuster assigned and then do a walk thru with him. He would call the family the Son said no call him and he will schedule. I gave the son a couple of my cards again and said I'd be happy to come out again he said I'll let you know.

4-5 Hours later phone rang it was the son who said lets me tomorrow at 9 and then insurance guy is coming at 10 for a walk thru. I said my pleasure. This meeting was a little different. I met with just the son who said he went and got power of attorney that only him and his sister would be making decisions not the dad or anybody else and he wants me to be his only point of contact.

After completing a walk thru with the insurance adjuster a 2nd time (large loss adjuster) this time I included my estimator who needs to build a rapport with adjuster because they talk money and plans and getting an initial plan for mitigation, money sent to dad from insurance for emergency supplies and clothes. I talked with son about moving forwards.

I was first told by the son he didn't like my Estimator because my estimator while trying to build a rapport with adjuster made small talk; said he lives locally and we have worked with this insurance company before and the son thought that was to sales like and thought this wasn't the time for that.

Family's main concern first was restoring power to sump pump so basement didn't flood if it rained because it was prone to flood and was full of boxes of train equipment. I had our main electrician come out immediately to restore temp power to outlet in basement to make sure Sump Pump and back up were working.

I set up a meeting with myself and the Son and the Contents Manager so he can hear directly from the source how the house would be packed out, secured and stored. I also said we need to get an emergency stash of clothes and items about 3 weeks worth of stuff Dad wants to wear, and have back to him A.S.A.P so he is not wearing contaminated clothes.

The next roughly 2 weeks I worked at the house with Son, Sister and Son's wife and teen son to clean and trash items they deemed actually trash and to remove all valuable items they wanted to keep. Dad gave his input but son was making decisions.

Fast forward to present, the Contents Team did a Fantastic job emptying the house, I had PECO out to restore power, air, heat e.t.c. I introduced the son and dad to my mitigation manager and now that I have built a rapport with the family they are good with anybody from Paul Davis contacting them for any reason. The Son and I have had a few conversations on how the process will go start to finish and we did a walk thru again since house was empty.

Today our Mitigation team started about 2 hours ago and we (I) have been in contact with the insurance adjuster on several occasions, introduced the family to the mitigation manager and transitioned from Emergency Recovery to Mitigation. Prior to Mitigation being completed I will introduce the son to the Reconstruction manager and get them talking about how they want the house reconstructed and put back together and assist in a smooth transition from Mitigation to Reconstruction.

I will then present the house back to Dad and family. They have already talked about getting the house nice to sell and moving Dad to assisted living which most times he is on board with. I think this brought them alittle closer together and will prevent the hoarder situation which ended up being more stuff then house and dementia starting to kick in. I did truly make new friends here and was able to turn somebodys bad day into a better one, and fix there house that had been on fire. Nobody was hurt, House will be brought up to code and restored and life will go on probably on a better path for the owner then before.