Brian Hoskins House Fire Fund

Hello, my name is Brian Hoskins. I live in Apache Junction, Arizona.

I had a house fire on July 2nd, 2022. I woke up from a nap in my spare room to smoke pluming into my home. All I had time to do was get my girlfriend who was in the shower and dog out of the house before it was too late.

This picture was taken by my girlfriend moments after getting outside. I had just called the fire department. Although the fire and police departments got there in under five minutes, the house is being written off as a total loss and deemed unlivable, the entire inside is coated in soot.

Unfortunate events took a turn for the worse when I contacted my insurance company. After losing everything I own, I was told my insurance company had "adjusted" my coverage two months prior. They knocked my coverage down a whopping 110 thousand dollars without so much as a letter from my agent. After speaking with the bank, I was also informed that I would be responsible for the difference in replacement value. Which in today's market is about 100 thousand dollars.

This is the renewal letter i got; this is how they "told me" my policy had changed... Not one word that mentioned my coverage had been reduced without my permission.

This is where I was sleeping moments before learning my house was in flames; it was the darkest room in the house, so I had a memory foam mattress on the floor to rest during the day.

I was in the middle of building a shop in my yard; in this picture are the two mini split air conditioning units I was going to use to cool the shop. An $8,000 to $10,000 dollar set back to my original goals for the shop as well as eating into the personal property coverage that I had left.

This is the roof in my spare bedroom; the fire got into the ceiling, so they had to break into the roof all over the house and soak it with water to prevent the fire from restarting from embers

All of my clothes either burnt or got severly smoke damaged. The few that survived that I'm wearing now have black marks and still smell of house fire after several washes. I've been able to get some clothes from goodwill and other second hand stores thanks to you all.

This is the aftermath of my living room with melted TVs, and broken windows; even my girlfriend's work laptop was melted.

The whole floor is water damaged, and the couch, as well as anything else fabric, is melted and riddled with fiberglass from the ceilings.

This is my bedroom; I had brushed most of the insulation off my bed to find my truck keys. All of the furniture is splitting from water damage. The bed and floor are also covered in fiberglass

Right now, I don't have enough money to rebuild; I don't make enough money at my trades to take out a second mortgage, and I cannot convince the insurance company to right all of their wrong doings. It seems like they didn’t really change my policy until they found out that I had a house fire. How do you reduce a customer insurance policy by $100,000 without a formal notice letter??

I could really use a loan of around $100,000, which is what I really need to cover my losses and have enough money to rebuild. $10 to $100 bucks sure would help at least get a full set of clothes to wear to work.

Anything larger will help me start a furniture, appliance and house rebuilding fund. I know it's a lot ask, but I have nowhere else to turn. I have heard good things about GoFundMe and many of my friends encouraged me to give crowdfunding on GoFundMe a try.

I don't know what to do other than send out a cry for help in good faith and pray that light comes out of a bad situation.

It is hard to explain what it feels like to lose every single thing you’ve been working hard to build — burned to the ground. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

If you've made it this far, I have put together a quick budget that shows how I will use any money I am given.

For now, I'm only asking for the money I need to get back on my feet; however, I'm also hoping the get assistance for short-term living and rebuilding if at all possible.

My home rebuild budget can be viewed in an excel spreadsheet that can be viewed at this URL link: My Home Rebuild Budget

Thanks in advance for your consideration. You’ll never know how much this will help me get back on my feet.

Sorry that I don’t have anything to give back for you, but I will say a prayer of thanks to God in your name!

I put all of my trust in this insurance company. They had no problem taking my hard money for insurance payments. Why would they refuse to do the right thing and pay 100% this insurance claim?? Maybe this is why the company has to keep changing its name. Read this news story =>

https://www.dicklawfirm.com/Blog/2021/January/National-Summit-Insurance-Company.aspx

UPDATE@@@

Thank you guys so much; we've pooled together enough to get some new clothes, gas, meals, and steel-toe boots. I really appreciate everyone that has donated and shared my post. Seriously it means the world to me! 

I'm starting to get everything together to rebuild, my girlfriend and I are looking into building a container home after we demolish and get the old double wide off of the land. Hopefully this will lower construction cost and build time for us.