What To Do When You or Someone You Care About Has Been Injured or Suffered a Serious Loss Due to Fire or Burns?

Stay calm!

Get everyone away from any smoke, fire or electrical wires.

Call 9-1-1 for help immediately.

They will send fire and rescue (Emergency Medical Responders) to the scene.

If injured, seek medical care.

If you or those close to you are injured, seek medical care, specifically tell them about your accident and the injuries that resulted from it, and then follow your doctor or health care professional's advice. Be honest about your injuries and get good care for them from health care professionals.  Sometimes, people have a strong adrenaline surge and feel fine after a fire related injury: and even tell the police they are not hurt.  Then, hours later or a day later, they begin feeling the symptoms of injury.  If that occurs, seek appropriate medical care for such injuries so that they can heal properly.

Consult a lawyer skilled in fire and burn cases.

There are a number of experts that your lawyers will employ immediately after the fire to document what occurred, damaged items, and determine the cause and origin of the fire.  This evidence is critical.  Time is of the essence in such cases!  Complete a FREE CONSULTATION REQUEST FORM or call us toll free at 1 (888) 668-8253 or local calls (919) 682-5648 so we can help you.  If the fire occurred on your own property, you will need to notify your own insurance carrier and your lawyers can help you with that process including filing your sworn proof of claim.  The fire insurance company will hire its own claim adjuster who will rush to the scene to document the damage.  The fire insurance company will usually have its own cause and origin expert who often arrives to the scene very shortly after the adjuster.  When there are multiple, serious injuries, it is not uncommon for the fire insurance company to have their adjusters and cause and origin expert at the scene within hours of the blaze being dowsed, even working alongside the fire department as it dowses smoldering debris and conducts its investigation.

Get photographs and video footage.

If you have a camera, it is important to get photographs of the fire, especially in the days after including close up photographs of property damage.  It is important to document the devastation from the fire - - the property damage to the entire building (including smoke damage to each room), personal property debris, and other evidence that will be lost in the hours following the fire.

For burn injuries, bi-weekly photographs of the burns as they heal, including wound dressing changes should be taken.  Ideally, you will have some video footage of wound dressing changes to show the extent of injury and all the steps involved in changing wound dressings as they heal.  Make sure that a family member or a trusted friend videos the injured victim and the wound care provider as the dressing is changed.  There is no need to give a running commentary, although normal conversation between the wound care provider and the injured victim is normal.

Photographs and video footage are strong evidence of what occurred and will be needed to establish your damages to many jurors who hold deep-seated doubts about awarding fair damages for permanent injury, scarring and pain and suffering.  With the prevalence of cameras and video footage, today's jurors expect to see such evidence.  When it is absent, many assume the injury was not bad and will not award fair damages for the tremendous pain and suffering that occurs in the first year after a serious burn.

Keep scorched personal property and heirlooms.

Our firm can help with your personal property and dwelling claim against your own homeowners insurance carrier which is covered below.  However, after a settlement is reached on the property damage with your own insurance carrier, far too many victims allow their scorched heirlooms and personal items to be destroyed by their insurance carrier who will haul them to a local dump.  Some of those items are very strong evidence of how the fire began and went through a structure.  Keep everything.

Call your insurer.

As soon as you are able, call your insurer and make sure they create a claim file for your accident.  When you hire our law firm, we will make sure to notify the appropriate insurance carrier's of the accident on your behalf.  Even if you do not have any bodily injury, but have lost your home or business, it is wise to consult a lawyer.  Remember that such properties (buildings and their contents) are often worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or higher and are your biggest financial assets.  You would be wise to consult a lawyer about your rights and what to expect and how best to proceed.

Gather information. Make a written list of the people at the fire scene. (We will need people's names, addresses, and telephone numbers and something that will help you explain what they should know for our use later.)  Keep a list of all health care visits including date of visit and health care provider.  Also list every fire and EMS crew that came to the scene.  If anyone provides you with an accident report, fire investigation report, or the like, keep it.

Get the fire report.

In almost all fire accidents where 9-1-1 is called, an emergency responder will prepare a report concerning the fire and will release a copy of it to you after it is completed.  Sometimes it takes them more than a week to complete the report.  That fire report is often nearly as important as the photographs of the scorched debris and any injuries.

Do not sign anything.

Do not give any recorded statements. If an insurance adjuster shows up or calls you on the telephone, do not sign anything without first talking to your lawyer.  Sadly, many insurance adjusters will make promises that they do not keep!  Until you have spoken with a lawyer at Thomas, Ferguson & Mullins, LLP, do not sign anything and do not give any recorded statement to any insurance adjusters.  You should have a lawyer look at anything that any insurance company gives you to sign.

Too often, folks sign something that eliminates or severely limits their right to a fair recovery.    You have to remember that insurance agents and claims representatives are working for insurance companies, not for you.  The objective of every claims representative is to pay out as little as possible and get the claim closed at the time of pay-out.

If you are offered any 'deal' by any insurance claims representative, please see a lawyer before deciding on it.  Do not give any recorded statements to insurance companies until talking with a lawyer.  Everything that is said will be used against you; nearly none of it will be used to help your case or to reach a fair resolution.  You have a duty to your own insurance carrier to cooperate and provide them with information; we can help you comply with your duties without losing any rights or inadvertently limiting or eliminating your right to a fair recovery.

Also, please visit our Burn Injury Attorney page for more info.

Request a free consultation. If you have been injured or lost property due to a fire or burns, you will want a lawyer to make sure you are fairly compensated for your injuries and losses.  The insurance companies responsible to cover the loss(es) have claims representatives and lawyers working on their side, you need lawyers working on your side to get a fair deal.  Complete our FREE CONSULTATION REQUEST FORM or call us toll free at 1 (888) 668-8253 or local calls (919) 682-5648.