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Steve is correct. I encourage new people to get into this business, as a lot of us ol timers, whether we want to admit it or not, are going to be out of the picture soon. I prefer to see a new adjuster take pride in what they are doing and quit concentrating on all that money they think they are going to make. If you do your claims properly and devote the necessary time to put out a good product, you will make a decent wage, not a retirement amount, however. I don't like adjusters that brag about how much money they have made, cause they are not telling the truth. Part of that income must go into savings for dry years, such as 06 and 07. I encourage young adjusters to seek help when questions arise. Don't do anything your not sure of. Learn construction and re building methodology. Learn your trade and you won't be considered a screw up. Yes, much was learned in Katrina, and many other cats. Independent will always be necessary. The cocky Farmers guy was just that, cocky. I lit into him pretty hard when he said we did not know what we were doing and made more money than he did. By the time I finished with him, he was ready to quit. I don't like uninformed, cocky, arrogant, egotistical people.

Tom, I have to agree with you, new people are needed. But it doesn't take very long to figure out who isn't needed. Comments like "I just got my license and I am ready to works fire, who are the vendors"  or "the first thing I ask when I meet another adjuster is how many files have you closed, this tells me if they can adjust" and so many more gems of wit and wisdom. If you are new and can survive this drough, listen, learn, when you ask a question, make sure it is to the point. Posting just to see your name will get you known, many vendors read this site, and they remember.  Most of us have paid our dues to this industy, an in spite of what some believe, we are here for more then the money.  We feel a real dicotomy about watching storms. Instead of praying for a disaster, pray that when one happens you can be there to use your skills to allow people to start tompick up the pieces. That's enough rambling for this morning, back to work.

Who asked you to obtain a certification for fire? Ask them what they really need and want - no one else can answer that question but them. I am not aware of a specific cert for fire, other than graduating from the school of hard knocks.

Maybe Vale or someone has something specific for fire, if anyone knows please post an answer.

At a casual glance, I see 3 obvious mis-spelled words on your post, and you will need to get used to professional reports in this business.  I have had my reports scrutinized in a legal deposition, and believe me, it's like throwing blood in the water when the sharks find unprofessional reports.  I had a good report, and they still tore it up.

Was this a serious post, or a Halloween prank?  (female name yet "wife and I", new to adjusting yet 3 years experience...  first post)

Gotcha. Welcome to our humble abode. If you find training on fires that is helpful to you, post it here so others can learn. I was in your shoes about 15 years ago and was also frustrated by the lack of data on how to scope a fire loss.  See my write-up on page 6.

I was also amazed how few contractors knew how to scope a fire loss. Some of them are very, very good and that is how I learned as omitted scope items were pointed out.  The contractors that specialize in water-fire damage soon learn to track down why the house still smells like smoke after they "fixed it" and moved all the furniture back in.  Family closes all the doors, leaves for the weekend, walks into a house that smells like smoke.

What is LM - what is CM?  (thanks for adding "Jim" to the member ID)

Liberty Mutual and Case Manager . We are doing a lot of WC and Liability for now and ever once in a while a Property claim. They asked if would do a fire claim and they asked for a cert. I looked on claim pages and Internet search and haven't found anything. It was coincidence that less than a week later the cal. fires started and i have been able to pick up ideas and tips from the CADO group. I've been reading the site every day and pick up new items every time I look. Wife is amazed a what I find here.
Once again THANKS TO ALL WHO POST HERE. This was the first site we looked up when we decided to change profession's. Jim

Jim, hit edit, copy your post, load it into MS Word and do a thesaurus and spell check. When complete, copy the corrected post and paste back into CADO post. It is important to do correct spelling in this profession, regardless of what others say. It is the end result of all your field efforts, which can be destroyed with a poorly worded or mispelled words. Or to make it more simple, do your post in word, copy it and then paste it to your CADO post.

I am still working "day claims" 5 hours north of the fire area in California. 
I just got off the phone with another large carrier (not one of the big 3) and she said they are just pulling in staff from other areas but not hiring independents for the # of fire claims they have.

I think the claims are spread out with lots of carriers for this one, so the number per carrier is small (unless one of the big 3).

In Hawaii 1992 I was doing hurricane claims for Hawaiian Insurance Group and they seemed to insure the whole Island (and went bankrupt...) but that isn't the scene here.

Nice Quals, you can adjust my homeowners claim any day.
I learned a lot working with State Farm and wish I could take those advanced courses.
No way now without becoming staff I suppose (as they try to downsize their over-staffed CAT team...)

Fires here in Calli are very different than fires on flat land. We have some structures built on the side of mountains with a 50 degree incline and very little road to work from. There are a number of components in that type structure that are on no one's database. Seismic caissons are necessary to erect proper structure for platform. I wish the MSB database were a little more intense, but it is failing here. I understand there is a lot to be desired with exactimate also. I guess no database is going to have it all.

Janice and I felt this event should be considered an adventure and  indeed it is. I hope to post some of these unusual structures shortly. One good thing about the short fall in databases is, you gain knowledge for the next event in this area.

I will give credit to Bill Slove with Cunningham Lindsey. He is doing an outstanding job, as is the CL staff. I was concerned about a new face and new personality taking the place of a dear friend, but Bill is doing great. I guess that is why we have stuck with CL the last 9 years. There are many good vendors out there to work with, we just hit it off with CL.

Janice and I will be on our way back home in a few days. 27 losses total, not what we expected, but it is work. Fortunately we had 3 total losses which will help the ol bank account. I am disappointed in the number of losses as opposed to what was thought to be expected. The company we represented wanted customer service to excel, so more adjusters were brought in to wrap things up quickly, too many in my opinion. If the companies and vendors are only going to give a few claims to adjusters to accomodate customer service and expect us to go to sites, with all the expenses entailed, they will not be able to find competent adjusters to do their work.  This industry is changing and unfortunately for the worse.

Thats the way it has been going Tom for about the last 5-6 years. You just did not see it. You and Janice are just a commodity thats needed when its needed. People are working each day to reduce catastrophe losses expense by replaceing the "turn key" type adjusters with some triage plan.