There goes the 72 hour kit

[Highlandsunrise]

We woke this morning to the sound of explosions. Five booms in a row. Our prepper neighbor's 20 foot bug out trailer was in flames with the one pound propane bottles and 22 shells going off like the 4th of July.

Two police officers and neighbors were running around getting the people out of the house and accounted for. One guy with a fire extinguisher that he wasn't proficient with. . fumbled with it, decided it was empty and threw it at the fire in frustration.

The fire department took 10-12 minutes to get there. Trailer went up so quick and so hot it was a blackened frame when they got the fire out. No sign of much else. Trailer was in the driveway and they were lucky to keep it from the house. Owner said one of the propane containers came close to hitting a fireman when it came flying out. Guess that's why the fire department is concerned about our propane storage.

They think it was caused by a battery charger plugged in to electrical cord. Made us think about our aged motor home sitting out there on a trickle charger.

The people and the dogs in the family are safe but wonder how their insurance is going to pay on all that emergency and camping stuff. We are rethinking a few things after this.

[mgriffith]

Wow! I'm glad I don't have a trickle charger on mine!

/\/\ark

[Cowboy]

Pictures?

[Highlandsunrise]

I have the photo gallery open and the reply box open. I right click on the picture and click copy then right click on the reply box but paste isn't highlighted. What am I doing wrong?

[Cowboy]

Send them to me and I will host them on the site. :shiny:

[arbilad]

I feel sorry for the people who lost so much.

[Highlandsunrise]

Thought I had this picture thing figured out. Had them uploaded on manage attachments but can't get them on from there. Don't know if I can even send them to you, Cowboy. I want to learn to do this.

There is lots of rubble here that I couldn't see in the dark through the fire truck spray. I feel bad for them too.

[Cowboy]

Take care of your stuff. It does no one any good when it ends up like this. Such a shame. I hope they can get most of it replaced.

http://www.ldsglo.com/images/Trailer1.JPG

http://www.ldsglo.com/images/Trailer2.JPG

http://www.ldsglo.com/images/Trailer3.JPG

[Noahs ARK]

Oh my.....that's terrible. I'd be sick.

[Toni]

Moral of the story: store items that explode away from everything else and don't plug storage trailers into anything.

Poor people. My heart goes out to them.

[BackBlast]

Going back through older threads I probably missed. So... NECRO POST!


...Owner said one of the propane containers came close to hitting a fireman when it came flying out. Guess that's why the fire department is concerned about our propane storage...

The people and the dogs in the family are safe but wonder how their insurance is going to pay on all that emergency and camping stuff...

Any chance you can find out how this went? I anticipate the insurance company may try to balk on the basis of over-the-legal-limit fuel storage (if they were over).


They think it was caused by a battery charger plugged in to electrical cord. Made us think about our aged motor home sitting out there on a trickle charger.

Catastrophic electrical failures are relatively uncommon compared to the number of devices around. However they do happen enough to cause some concern, and almost all occur in poor conditions for electronics - hot or wet or areas with no air flow (which become hot), or some bad DIY electronics. Also, some battery types are plain dangerous to run on trickle charge for a long period of time (lead acid is not one of them). If it was a lead acid bank on trickle charge for maintenance with an otherwise, uncompromised and in good shape trickle charger, then this was just very very bad luck.

[prairiemom]

Ouch! That's painful to look at! Yeah, not so smart to store so many combustibles where you have electricity running and so close to the house. Not good at all.

[Toni]

I'm with BackBlast. Do you have an update on this family? How are they doing now?

[Highlandsunrise]

Our neighbors with the fire said the insurance co. paid for the trailer (they bought a smaller replacement trailer with the money) but had refused to pay for the contents at that time. Neighbor spent a lot of time picking through the rubble in an attempt to document some of the contents. She didn't elaborate on the details. I will talk with her and see if I can answer more questions.

Coincidentally, our other neighbor whose house burned down a few weeks after the trailer fire had the same outcome with the insurance co. They paid for the structure but have at present refused to pay for the contents. Is this routine?

Sounds more important then ever to have a home inventory and pictures to prove what was burned. We'd better get busy.

[Lucy]

What insurance company is it? I thought insurance paid for the content too. (Maybe that's extra but I know we have so much that would be paid for personal property)

[BackBlast]

What insurance company is it? I thought insurance paid for the content too. (Maybe that's extra but I know we have so much that would be paid for personal property)

I believe it depends on your policy.. Generally, home owners/renters insurance will have a "personal property" section attached to it. It will not give you replacement cost, but adjusted "cash value". IE depreciated from use.

You have to prove what was owned too, they don't take your word for it after the fact. Having digial pictures or video would be good in addition to an inventory list. Something along the lines of evidence to submit your claim.

Insurance companies are always at their best when selling you a policy, and at their worst when processing your claims. Even with every t crossed and every i dotted, they may reject your claim. But the better job you do the more likely you are to win in the end.

Anyway, that's my understanding.

Brandon

[brghtii]

I have USAA and they won't pay for my food storage in my house. They will pay a small amount for food but NOT my big storage.

[Justme]

How did you happen to find out that USAA won't cover a large amount? Since even the govt. recommends 2 weeks now I would assume that much would be considered reasonable for coverage. Too bad about the rest or can one add a rider to cover more?

[Highlandsunrise]

Hi old friends, Fixitguy and I went through our 72 hour kits to replace everything that couldn't be eaten and add a few things. We waited too long and threw away all the food. Hope all is well with you and your families. Wishing you safety and good health and all you need. Highlandsunrise.

[DMGNUT]

Kind of cool that Elder Bednar just mentioned 72 Hour Kits in General Conference.
Big thumbs up for that (since so many good righteous saints, think they're useless... not anyone here, but others that I know).
And as I understand it... pics and lists rule the day with insurance companies.
Most everything you have will be covered in a limited capacity (even guns).
But... anything over their idea of "reasonable" will not be covered at all, as they'll say you needed a rider policy for "that", (whatever "that" is... or was).
And if you're getting a rider policy for something (that's presumably expensive, and usually must be a single item or small collection), it's only gonna fall into the, it "might" be worth it category, as rider policies tend to be very pricey... especially for individual items that are valuable (and you better be able to prove it's value).
I have no idea what they would or would not do for food storage (especially considering it's diminishing shelf life).
In the end, I strongly suspect you'd get very little in return for the rider policy that you paid quite a bit for.

We have and store combustibles... but in storage sheds in the back yard (no electricity, or spark sources, not in or near the house, proper storage containers, etc, etc).
Doing the best we can, as we may, but we still can't foresee the fluke or rare odd occurrence.

PS. I've always disliked battery chargers... but if you need one, take the battery out of whatever device (or vehicle it's in) before plugging it into the charger.