What to Do after a House Fire in New Jersey

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can’t prevent a disaster from happening. With nearly 360,000 house fires reported by US fire departments each year, there’s really nothing personal if one breaks out in your home. That being said, as a homeowner there are a handful of action steps you’ll want to take after a house fire to get life back on track. Filing New Jersey homeowners insurance claims is just one part of the process.

What to Do after a New Jersey House Fire

House fires are common not only in New Jersey, but in the country as a whole. In fact, house fires caused $7 billion in property damage and claimed more than 2,500 lives in the US between 2011 and 2015. Considering the frequency in which these devastating tragedies occur, it’s all the more important to be familiar with what to do after a house fire.

Take the following action steps after a New Jersey house fire:

• Step One: Have the fire department inspect your residence: Before reentering your home, have authorities inspect it to be sure it’s safe. Damage caused by house fires can leave a home’s structural elements unstable making the building extremely dangerous to reenter.
• Step Two: Have the fire department inspect utilities: Beyond just investigating the structural integrity of your home after a fire, have the fire department also inspect electrical utilities and systems to be sure they are either safe for continued use or that they get disconnected until they can be repaired.
• Step Three: Take inventory of any structural damage: Take note of any damaged/destroyed personal property, as well as any damage/destruction to your home’s structure and detached structures like sheds and garages. List all damage, from minor to extreme. You may also want to get a professional inspection of your plumbing and electrical systems.
• Step Four: Make temporary repairs: If necessary to prevent further damage to your home or belongings, make temporary repairs. Be sure to save any receipts to submit along with your insurance claims. Save larger repairs for after you have the damage professionally assessed since any of your personal repairs will be factored into your insurance policy’s limit.
• Step Five: Follow your insurance company’s instructions: When filing a claim after a fire, your homeowners insurance company will either send you a proof of loss form to complete yourself, or send an adjuster to your home to assess the damage. If an adjuster visits, you’ll want to give them a list of damaged/destroyed property to speed the process along. Don’t clean out or throw away any damaged/destroyed items before the adjuster visits. It can also help to further document your damaged/destroyed property by taking pictures or video to include with your inventory list.
• Step Six: Get professional estimates: After identifying any damage, you’ll want to get professional estimates for repairs. Having itemized estimates from licensed contractors to send to your insurance company will speed along the claims and reimbursement process.
• Step Seven: Make copies of all important documents: You’ll be giving a lot of important paperwork to your insurance company, but you’ll want to keep copies for yourself, too, for after your claims process. Keep a folder of copies of all receipts, estimates, inventory lists, etc., to help the process run as smoothly as possible.
• Step Eight: File insurance claims: Many New Jersey homeowners policies require you to file a claim within one year of a fire, but depending on your specific insurance company, the requirements and process for filing claims may differ slightly. Your independent insurance agent can help you with the claims process and answer any questions you may have. You may also need to file auto insurance claims if your vehicle was damaged by the fire.

While surviving a house fire can be a traumatic experience, having an action plan to follow once the flames are out can be a huge stress reliever.

Does Insurance Cover House Fires in New Jersey?

Following a house fire, knowing that standard New Jersey homeowners insurance policies provide coverage may help you breathe at least a small sigh of relief. If your home completely burned down due to the fire, your homeowners insurance will reimburse you for the insured value of the dwelling. Since house fires are one of the costliest and most common perils facing homeowners, your insurance policy is well designed to protect you from these disasters.

New Jersey homeowners insurance provides coverage for house fires in the following ways:

• Home repair or rebuilding: Your homeowners insurance policy covers the costs to repair or rebuild areas of your home damaged by fire. The insurance company will also pay out the value of your policy in the event of the worst case scenario — if your home completely burns to the ground.
• Property damage or destruction: If your insured personal property in and around the home is damaged or destroyed due to fire, your homeowners insurance policy will cover you.
• Other aspects of fire damage: Homeowners insurance provides coverage for damage due to the actual fire itself, as well as the smoke from the fire, or water damage caused while attempting to extinguish the fire.
• Temporary lodging: If your home is damaged badly enough by fire to cause you to need temporary lodging while waiting for repairs to be completed, your insurance policy will cover the fees for your hotel, etc.

If your home has been damaged to the point of being temporarily unlivable after the fire, you can contact local disaster relief agencies such as the Red Cross to find housing while awaiting repairs. Your homeowners insurance policy also includes built-in coverage for additional living expenses, including hotel stays, eating out, additional gas mileage, laundry services, and more while you wait for your home to be restored to tenable status.

Once you’ve paid your policy’s deductible, your New Jersey homeowners insurance policy will reimburse you for the extent of the fire damage up to the total insured value of the dwelling itself and to the personal property category’s coverage limit. Personal property deductibles are typically 1% of the home’s value. So if your home is worth $300,000, personal property damage might have to exceed $3,000 before insurance reimbursement kicks in.

How to Prevent Future House Fires in New Jersey

Once you’ve survived one house fire, odds are that you won’t want to go through that ever again. Fortunately, there are a handful of action steps you can start taking today to protect yourself from ever experiencing another house fire.

Do the following to prevent any future or recurring New Jersey house fires:

• Install/check fire alarm systems: If your home already has a fire alarm system (and hopefully it does), that’s great. Take some time now to test each alarm to be sure the battery is still working and that the speaker is functional. It’s also a good idea to have both ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms or dual sensor smoke alarms. Check all batteries monthly and replace batteries annually. Make sure there’s a smoke alarm on every floor of the home, including unfinished basements.
• Consider installing an automatic sprinkler system: If you’ve already dealt with one house fire, you might want to install an automatic sprinkler system. It’s an especially good idea to install a sprinkler system if you live in a dry or heavily wooded area or an area that’s otherwise prone to wildfires as well.
• Update your home: If your home was built using highly flammable materials, consider updating to fire-resistant materials. You can update your windows to fire-resistant glass, use concrete for foundations and roofs, plaster walls with stucco to increase their fire-resistance, ensure that your walls have a gypsum sheath board (also known as drywall) behind them to help prevent the spread of fire, and otherwise construct the house out of brick, the top fire-resistant material.
• Become familiar with fire safety in every part of the home: Study official organizations’ (such as the National Fire Protection Agency) safety tips for preventing house fires in every area of the home. These include things like never leaving cooking unattended, turning off portable space heaters before leaving the room, only smoking outdoors, inspecting electrical outlets regularly, and maintaining a “kid-free zone” around stoves and other heating units by establishing a three-foot perimeter they cannot cross.
• Purchase and keep fire-fighting materials handy: Once you’ve gotten serious about fire safety, it’s important to have some go-to materials ready to grab in the event flames do break out again. Fire extinguishers and shovels are highly recommended items to have on hand to fight fires.

One bright side of house fires being so common is that there are many tools and resources available today to help prevent them. Implementing these action steps now can seriously decrease your chances of ever having to suffer through another tragic and costly house fire.

Why Work with a New Jersey Independent Insurance Agent?

In order to get the protection you need and deserve, you’ll want to work with a trusted expert. And who could be better for the job than a local agent who shares your area code? Independent insurance agents act as your own personal insurance shoppers, offering you tons more options than one-policy companies. With just one call, they’ll hook you up with multiple quotes.

New Jersey independent insurance agents are armed with knowledge on what coverage is needed in your area, and they’ll get you set up with just enough of it — not too little, not too much. They’ll handle all the heavy lifting so you can rest assured you’ll be set up with the right coverage at the right price.

They’re not just there at the beginning, either. If disaster strikes, your New Jersey agent will be there to help walk you through the claims process and make sure you’re getting the benefits you're entitled to. Now that’s thinking ahead.