What to Expect After a Housefire
We all hope it never happens, but the fact is some people experience a housefire at some point in their lives. According to historical estimates by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and various other stats, about one in seven American homeowners will experience a fire significant enough for the fire department to respond over their lifetime. (Your lifetime chance of experiencing a reported home-structure fire is on the order of ~10–15% - about 1 in 10 to 1 in 7.) While it's more comforting to believe you’ll never experience a residential fire, it's actually more common than you would think.
So the question we'll explore in this article is: what should you expect to experience after you've had a house fire? We want to prepare you on two fronts: emotionally, and physically (or practically). Each aspect of the aftermath of a housefire can take its toll, and dealing with it can be tough if you're unprepared.
What to Expect Emotionally After a Fire
Disbelief. It will be difficult to accept that it actually happened to you. No one who has a house fire wants to believe it happened to them - whether its a small kitchen fire or an entire house burning down. We all know it can happen to someone else, because we've all seen news footage of homes that burned down. But it's hard to accept it could actually happen to us.
Despair and hopelessness. This emotion is understandable, but it can take over if you're not careful. When someone loses everything because of something unseen (like faulty electrical wiring, for example) it can feel like they had no control. And the truth is, there are some things in life we can't control. It's normal to experience some terrible feelings because of this. However, these feelings don't help anyone recover from a disaster like a housefire.
Grief. The grieving process is very real, and the loss of property is actually similar in some ways to the loss of a loved one or a relationship. In fact, many belongings can have real connections to the people we love and can evoke powerful memories from important life events. So understand that grieving is normal after a fire. For someone who might have lost important keepsakes, photo albums, letters, or family heirlooms the grief is significant and it happens for a reason.
No one enjoys the unpleasant feelings and emotions that follow an event like a fire. But it's important to expect and work through the feelings. House fires can be life-changing events, but being equipped to navigate past the difficulties can help speed up the healing process.
While we can't shortcut or bypass the emotional part of it, we can ease it slightly and we can speed up the practical aspects of an event like this. This brings us to what to expect (and how to prepare) from a practical point of view.
What to Expect Practically After a House Fire
General confusion. It's normal to be confused when a surprise event throws your life into chaos. For every one that wakes up to see part of their hosue inundated with flames, or drives up to their house and sees the fire department hosing down what's left, confusion is pretty common. "What is happening?" is followed by "what do I do?". Having a framework than tells you what to do next can alleviate some of this confusion.
A lot of phone calls and paperwork. The first call you'll probably make will be to your insurance agent, and then your adjuster. And possibly there will be other calls - to cleaning companies, contractors, and storage companies. Some of your items might be salvageable, while others will be lost in the rubble. You'll also be scrambling to inform other people about your loss and getting important things replaced (such as documents, essential work tools or equipment, or even vehicles).
A feeling of urgency to get things done. Each situation differs, but it's likely you will have some form of deadline to complete all the steps necessary in your insurance claim. You likely won't have an open-ended timeframe to provide all your documentation in the proper format. Additionally, you'll want to finish submitting everything as soon as you're able - so you can rebuild your life! This feeling of urgency will dictate how and when you get things filled out and submitted. If you can be prepared beforehand, you won't feel rushed - and you'll provide better documentation. The better documentation, the more likely it is you'll to get a higher payout than if you scrambled to put together a list!
The aftermath isn't fun to think about, but it's helpful to be aware of what to expect. While we can't eliminate the realities of what we just mentioned, we can help. Our software is designed to make the practical aspects of planning and recovering from a house fire (or other disaster) much easier. Imagine having a complete list of all your belongings immediately available to send to your insurance adjuster - with all the things they will scrutinize already documented (model number, replacement cost, condition, where you purchased, and more).
Our app makes everything as painless, easy, and as fast as it can be. That's why we call it Home Contents List Pro - it gives you the power to export a professional-quality inventory list of all your property and provide it to your insurance company. This allows them to process your claim faster, and the quality of the details means they'll be less likely to deny or devalue the items you claim.