Fire!

A couple of weeks ago, we got a disturbing call from our neighbors down in Missouri - our dock was on fire!  More specifically, our fishing boat had ignited - it was completely destroyed, and the dock had extensive damage.  This weekend, we're down here, meeting with insurance adjusters, dock repair people, and boat service folks. 

We were amazed when we saw the photos from the fire, but seeing the damage in person is even more striking.  The fishing boat is no longer recognizable as a watercraft - much of the fiberglass cloth is still there, but the resin has burned completely - it's as if the whole thing just melted.  The steering wheel is laying in the middle of the mess, the pump for our live well is a burnt tube in the back, and the anchor is sitting next to it - the only piece of the boat that is still functional at all.

We have no idea how the fire started.  Our insurance company asked if we had any enemies down here, but all of our enemies live in Nebraska, and we're careful not to let them know how to find us down South.  The fire marshal just ruled it an "accidental fire" - he really has no clue what happened.  It appears as though the fire started near the front of the boat, by the trolling motor batteries, but it's hard to tell for sure.  There was about 12 gallons of gas, split between the front and the back end of the boat, so there was plenty of fuel.  I suspect some kind of short, but that's just a guess. 

Most of the damage was to the area right around the boat.

The whole underside of the roof, and most of the structural members are covered in soot.  Some of the roofing material has buckled, and some support members may be structurally suspect, but most of the structure is OK.

Our paddle boat, once stored on this burnt section of dock, was completely consumed.  Only the pedals remain!

Our other boat sustained relatively minor damage.

This is the adjustable-height seat base from the fishing boat.  It was blown out of the boat, and ended up on the dock.

We had just reinforced the transom on the fishing boat - that's probably the only reason the motor isn't laying on the bottom of the lake!

This fan has seen better days!  The dock will need to be completely rewired.

The photos really don't do justice to this - it's a mess!  The good news is, nobody was hurt.  Nothing except our dock and boats was damaged, and we'll still be able to use the house.  With a little time - and a bit of money - we'll be good as new.

Now, the bad news.  We had two boats, only one of which was insured.  Guess which one was completely destroyed?  We'll get a little coverage under our home owner's policy, but it's still not good news to lose the fishing boat.  On top of that, we liked that boat - it was old and ugly, but we had a lot of fun with it, and it worked well for our needs.

We also lost all our fishing gear - the new stuff that was set up just like we wanted it, as well as some old gear I'd had since I was a child.  A few of the lures in my tackle box were ones I got on vacation about 45 years ago.

The other big negative?  We discovered our dock was under-insured.  Our insurance agent told us we had "full replacement coverage".  That's true, but only up to the limit of our coverage - in this case, about 2/3 of the value of the dock.  Since our first estimate for repairs came to about twice our coverage amount, we're now looking for ways to reduce the expense.  Had we been adequately covered, we'd just be able to say, "fix it"!

Even this dark cloud has a silver lining - after this experience, we'll be sure to evaluate our coverage on both houses to make sure we can recover in the event of a disaster.  What else did we learn?  We learned our agent in Lincoln (Ray Thompson State Farm) is on top of things.  Even though we have a different agent for our lake home, I got a call from Shannon in the Lincoln office, asking if everything was OK.  Our Missouri agent, Joe Varnen, is another story - we finally talked to him today, almost two weeks after the fire.  We are also disappointed that he didn't give us better guidance for setting up our policies - Ray's office will go over our coverage every couple of years to make sure we're set up right. 

In the end, we were responsible for our own property.  We could - and should - have known the exact limits of our coverage.  As I said, we'll get everything fixed, and eventually this will be just one of life's experiences.  Right now, it's a giant pain!