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You worked hurricanes in 04 and 05, maybe you worked a hail storm or two since. A vendor calls and says come to work, should you go?

1. Aways an issue.

2. What is enough experience, 10 year large loss,  20 years?

3.  How much support did most get in 05 and 04?

4.  This question speaks volumes.

"sigh"

At the risk of being wrong... Here's my take on Pete's post.

Adjusting a fire claim is the most difficult and demanding type of claim. I have stood in 1/2 burned out buildings with all the time in the world, pretty caught up on my work load, and still totally challenged just because of the magnitude of the scope.

years ago I quit writing scope notes on any fire, and shifted over to entering the scope into my laptop on site - otherwise I would fill a legal pad with scope notes. You may take some notes, like a cabinet diagram and so on, but the number of scope items will be vast if the structure has actual fire damage that got into the attic, etc. and not just "drive by smoke".

There can be issues like "temp bracing and shoring" of portions of the house while you remove bad framing.  You can have some framing that is lightly scorched that can be cleaned and sealed - if it has any alligatoring on it then has lost strength.  You get into truss issues, and even partial damage often means yanking the entire truss out, and all the decking and roof membrane in the way.  Building Dept's will sometimes accept an engineered fix but usually contractors will want to replace a truss rather than get OK to patch up an existing one.

It's one thing to have a tree hit a house and cause serious framing damage, that would be like a surgical strike.  But a fire is a whole new level because it's like the whole place got beat with the ugly stick.  With a typical fire the place gets hosed by the fire dept which adds water damage (but prevents total loss).  In a cat situation there may not be a fire dept response, but the current code for larger homes in CA requires fire sprinklers, so that can add to the mess as well if it was built in recent years.

We all start somewhere, and there's nothing wrong with being moderately experienced. I think his point was - if you get a severe fire loss that you have to scope, and it's your first one, you may get your head handed to you.

Here's the latest numbers with carriers reporting in to the CA Insurance Network with 1,760 reported losses and projections of $500 million in losses:

www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2007/10/23/84494.htm

I pretty sure thats what he was getting at and I couldn't agree with him more. Some of these people will have lost everything. The last thing they want is someone handling their loss thats never handled a large loss and/or fire loss before.

Speaking of people who have lost everything - it's amazing how you can have a fire where "most" of the house is present, but the contents are totally gone. The smoke damage to contents is the hardest part as far as a "time suck". I have one carrier that demands that the adjuster fill out the inventory on site with any homeowner loss, and it's kind of interesting to get the list done that day instead of nagging for it week after week.

I had a fire loss where a professional Restoration company did a pretty good job cleaning lots of furniture and nick-naks that were not an obvious total loss. It was an affluent family, with high standards, and they rejected almost all of the cleaned items, and we ended up auctioning it off. The content restoration bill was over $10,000 and the best bid for the house full of furniture was $200 (hard goods, the upholstered stuff was gone).

Janice and I are heading out to CA Friday morning. Only have 22 losses, but several are very large losses. Looks like most are ember burns to roofs, contents and odor. We are already getting questions about ALE and loss of use. Janice called all our loss owners yesterday and is making appointments for next week. So far, all the people have been super nice and understanding. I hope that continues.

We are going to try something new this time. We are leaving our truck home and only taking our 23' Minnie B, RV. It is self contained, just like the big RV's but is reasonably small enough to park in a regular parking space. We will live and work out of it. It is cramped, but you know what, ,most of us are spoiled when it comes to life and material possessions. I remind myself everyday that we don't have to live in a shanty, mud hut, or other deplorable place. We don't mind putting up with the small space and are thankful that we have what we have. We will be able to take as much equipment as is required for working large and small losses. We will stay in an RV park with wireless, so we hopefully will not need a Verizon type card for internet, but may have to get one later.

I hope many of you will be deployed to this event so you can cut your financial losses we have sustained. Be sure and take an OSHA approved mask to filter out the bad air associated with this event. My lungs are damaged, so I, for sure, will be wearing one. God speed and good luck to all.

Tom and Janice- good luck on your trip!

Dave- here's an article quoting the CEO of Farmers on stats for Farmers at 2,000 and Foremost at 500 which came out last night about 7pm but I don't know how up to date the stats are. I'm keeping a running toll on the claim numbers on each carrier as released in the news and haven't seen anything yet like the numbers you were given for any of the major carriers yet. You'll find the ones reported on in the news yesterday in last night's blog if you want to see other carriers reported numbers thus far. I agree with you the numbers will be high once all of the reports do come in.

Here's the article on Farmers (latest news I've read on them right now):

http://home.businesswire.com/portal...ewsLang=en

Yep, long way to go...but maybe they are getting a little assistance on the mileage as part of the deal.  And, with the losses likely being pretty large, they'll likely all be T&E.   T&E billing can be done along the trip with the duo making contacts, setting up files,  reviewing coverage, sending 1st contact report, and the good old "prepare to deploy" if allowed by the carrier.  Never did understand that one as an examiner and vendor billing approver, for fees I saw from a particular service provider that will remain nameless .  Seemed like a fee to roll out of bed & get dressed, wish I could get by with that one.  

Rob you are correct. It is a long way to go for work. Will we make any money above expenses, who knows. I certainly hope so. I am sure there will be more claims as time allows the homeowners to return home. Many claims will be odor, ash, and ember damage to buildings. Hopefully we will get some nice commercial losses. In this business, work is a guessing game. You either make or break even. I hope we make as funds around the Toll house are extremely low. We had a nice savings account, but with my surgery for cancer and related  medical expenses and then no work, it is shot in the foot. I would not think our vendor would send us if they did not think we could make a living, lets hope so. If not, they and you will certainly hear about. I am becoming more vocal as I age.

Already having problems with MSB. Everything goes in Janice's name, as she is the lead adjuster and I am now her assistant. We cannot import/export files due to com central. I was assured by MSB over a year ago that this problem had been resolved. I certainly hope so. I will keep you posted on this matter also.