at lunchtime today my cooker caught fire, it wasnt on and hadnt been for enarly an hr when it went up in flames. there is more smoke damage on the walls and ceilings than actually fire damge.
ANYWAY my son is asthmatic, i have bundled him n his brother off to my aunties house for the night so that he is not in the worst of the smokey-walled rooms, by the time he comes back from aunties and school tomorrow i will have had the windows open all day.
DO i need to replace his mattress and bedding ? there wasnt much smoke went upstairs but i'm not sure due to the fumes etc.
Sorry to hear this - very upsetting for you and the family. I was in a highrise flat many years ago - twice we were all evacuated as fire broke out in the rubbish shute. I remember the smell of smoke lingered for days, and a thin layer of soot appeared in the door frames. I dont remember smelling smoke on my bed/bedclothes but I couldnt have afforded to replace them anyway.
Presumably your house insurance will cover the damage, maybe worth checking to see if they will replace damaged bedding?
Hi if you have household insurance, they employ companies like ChemDry to come in and clean up your fire damaged home, and either specially clean other items in the home or suggest after inspection complete replacement. My husband used to work in this industry, so I am aware of what they can do. Surprisingly soot can cover quite a distance, a few years ago there was a flat fire in the block next door to me, and I could smell it in my home for days, and my whole place was covered in a layer of soot. But really if you do have insurance you should make a claim, and get these people in to a professional clean up.
yes i have home insurance and they have been informed. BUT they dont seem to be great - my policy states if anyone is unable to occupy the house due to fire or soke damage or for health reasons they will supply alternative accomodation - i asked about this at 3pm when i rang them and they said they would ring me by 8pm - is now 8:30am and still no call, so going to ring them back.
my son got back from auntys house and has been in mine 20mins (now gone school) and has already had to use inhalers.
It might well depend on your insurance company- they can be quite variable from my experience.
Last year water leaked from the upstairs flat into our flat and the spare bed got slightly wet. Our insurance company replaced the duvet and the complete set of bedding (including the pillow cases etc which hadn't even got wet).
If they don't replace the bedding I would hope that they would at least pay for it to be cleaned. Do you know whether the insurance company would let you get new items or items cleaned and then claim the money back?
Not sure how bad your son's asthma is, but our insurance company were really nice and prioritised our claim because my asthma was quite bad at that point (I'd just come out of hospital and wasn't even able to live in our flat). Might be worth thinking about.
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