Family counts emotional and financial cost of fire
Andrene Bean is still trying to rebuild her life three months after an electrical fire destroyed her home.While she said much of the physical structure of the home was insured, everything inside was destroyed by the flames or the smoke.“We lost a lot of things that we can never get back,” she said. “As your children grow you mark their height on the walls, but that’s gone. It’s the things like that we have lost.“Furniture can always be re-bought, but it’s the memories.”She said she was at work when she was given the phone call that her home near Court Street was burning.“Even when I saw it, I didn’t believe it was happening,” she said. “The flames were just unbelievable.“I had no idea what could have caused it. Now we have been told it was an electric fire from something in the ceiling where we had done renovations. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong.”While almost everything inside the house was destroyed, she said the fire could have been even worse. No one was injured in the blaze, and the family dog was rescued by firefighters.The family’s fish even survived the fire, despite its bowl being blackened by the flames.And in the aftermath of the disaster, Ms Bean said many in the community came together to support her and her family, donating food, school uniforms and money. Ms Bean’s employers, the Bermuda Hospitals Board, have placed her family in a unit at the former Horizons resort, and she said her insurers, Freisenbruch-Myers have done everything they can.But she said her family still have a way to go before their lives can return to normal. While the structure of the home was mostly insured, she said the family had failed to get the value of the property revaluated after carrying out renovations, leaving the home under insured.In addition, everything inside the home from the furniture to the toilet and bathtub need to be replaced.“They were just completely blackened,” she said. “We have I believe two walls that need to be taken down and the roof needs to be replaced.“We’ve been talking to contractors and we should be able to get an idea of how much everything will cost on Monday, but even after that, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”She said she is hoping the public will continue to help her and her family recover from the devastating fire, and called for the public to make sure their homes are properly insured.“All I’m trying to do is get myself back into that house for my children,” she said. “There’s no place like home.”
In the aftermath of a fire which destroyed a family home, insurers are reminding the public to make sure their homes are insured and valued correctly.
William Madeiros of Freisenbruch-Myers said that while the issue of property values frequently arrises during hurricane season, hurricanes are not the only element that can destroy a home.
“We have had two large fire claims in the last 12 months, and in both instances the buildings were badly damaged, well into the six figures,” Mr Madeiros said.
“We in Bermuda think fires won’t happen, but when things in the house start burning, it just goes and it goes.”
In another recent incident a tree fell on a client’s home, causing extensive damage.
Mr Madeiros said Freisenbruch-Myers will revaluate properties for free, and advised those who have had renovations to their homes to keep home values up to date. While premiums may seem high, he said the homeowner is taking on a share of the risk themselves if something happens to an undervalued home.
Henry Sutton of BF&M agreed, saying that members of the public who chose not to properly insure their homes risk dealing with the full weight of any loss, catastrophic or otherwise.
“We believe that the primary reason why members of the public should have home insurance is because it is the cheapest and most efficient way of protecting their most important personal asset, their home,” he said.
“For a small premium, relative to the value of the property, the insurer takes away the stress and the financial chaos that generally arise after a catastrophic event like a fire.”
