Family Needs Help After a Catastrophic Fire

I know times are hard for many people right now, and I hate to have to ask this but I don’t believe I am equipped to fight this battle on my own, so I am asking you for help on behalf of myself, my wife, and my four young children. My home caught fire and we’ve experienced the loss of our home along with all of the contents within it. Everything we’ve built for the last 14 years and strived for. A home full of our memories and where we kept our children safe, learning, and growing.

The fire started in the garage with a suspected electrical problem and spread quickly through the walls to the attic, where the fire department fought it for 6 hours before it was finally extinguished. The entire roof collapsed into my home and destroyed everything my family owned. Clothing, furniture, electronics, food, books, musical instruments, etc. you name it, are all gone, and we’ve been left with nothing. I’m asking for your help because I have good reason to believe I am in a war of attrition with the insurance company.

The public adjusters I’ve contracted with and attorneys I’ve spoken to have told me they have never seen such aggressive stall tactics from an insurance company. They are using every trick in the book to drag this out, every loophole, every delay tactic, and every technicality in my contract is being implemented against me, and as a result, I have received no help from the insurance company. I’ve had to secure a rental home myself, front the cost, and put food on the table and clothes on the backs of my children all while continuing to pay my mortgage and any other obligations I committed to before losing my home.

I’ve been told that it will take a bare minimum of 3 months before I see a dime from them, but chances are it will be much longer. Potentially six to eight months. I’ve been informed that this is standard protocol with this company in an effort to make families desperate and in financial ruin so they will be willing to accept the lowest offer given for their loss. On top of this, our reimbursement of living expenses, when they do finally decide to take action months from now, will only be for 12 months from the date of the fire. The longer they stall, the longer it forces us to wait on rebuilding which will force us to cover a rent and mortgage with no reimbursement from them during rebuild. We are looking at a minimum of 10 months to a year for total rebuild time. This rental will end up costing us in a way we cannot sustain on our own. Our children have been through extreme trauma and we are desperately trying to protect them from having to experience more suffering through this process.

I pledge to every donor that contributes to this fund, that I will spend every last cent as prudently and efficiently as possible to ensure that I still have legs to stand on when the process moves into the final stages. Furniture for our home, as we currently have none, basic needs for my children, and rent for the coming months as it will be a long while before we get reimbursement on that and the reimbursement will not last as long as this rebuild is going to due to their push back against us. I can’t win this battle on my own, it’s me against an army of insurance company lawyers and adjusters who have no concern for our situation and are focused only on their bottom dollar. So please, I implore you to donate to this fund so I can outlast the delays and not lose this temporary housing we have secured for our children while we rebuild their homes and everything they have lost through no fault of their own. Thank you, truly. Your help means the world to my children and me during this tragic time in our lives.