Learn from our mistake

On Saturday November 10, 2007 there was a fire...

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Hello, my name is Vince Hodges and I am a software developer living in Vancouver Canada.

On Saturday Nov 10, 2007 at around 8PM my mom called my cell to tell me her trailer was on fire. She said she had called 911 already and that she was outside in her car and that her and the cats were safe.

As I was trying to digest the news, my cell went dead! (I had spotty cell coverage where we were staying...). I frantically tried to call back, I tried the home number (hoping/guessing that she might be calling from the cordless), I tried her cell and could not get through.

My sister lives not too far away, so I finally called her place and talked to my nephew, giving him the number of where we were staying (about 2 hours away visiting my wife's family - I should point out my mom lives about 5 hours from Vancouver).

He said that my sister knew about the fire and was on her way back into town and that he would pass the number onto his mom and my mom if they called.

So I spent the next 90 minutes waiting and not knowing what was going on..... my sister finally called and said that it was all gone... I uttered a silent "fuck"....

So what was our mistake? No insurance. None. Not on the contents, not on the structure.

My sister asked me if I wanted her to call back after they got home. I figured that they wouldn't know anything new, so I said no.

I also didn't figure there was much point in driving up that night, so I told her we would be up in the morning and that we would get there around 10:00 AM or so.

We drove up the next day to check on my mom and the trailer. We met my sister on the road to her place, she said that they had managed to find a record hassock with childhood photos that was intact.

And my mom phoned yesterday and said she rescued her jewellery box (nothing valuable, just sentimental).

The fire has been listed as an undetermined cause, there was too much damage to determine a source.

So, the moral of my story? Make sure you have insurance on your home and it's contents. I know it's easy to put off. You think "I'll be careful", "it can never happen to me", "I'll get around to it later". Well, I'm here to tell you, when you need it, you need it. Don't put it off.

I've put this site up for two reasons:

  1. To inform others of the dangers and risks of not having insurance
  2. to try and recoup some of the money we owe on something that doesn't exist anymore.

We're not destitute, or even homeless (she's living at my sisters for the winter). We're not looking for cash donations.

We do however, have a largish loan on the trailer and that's why I put up the ads. They will remain until (and if) we recover the amount of that loan. After that I will remove them.

If you want to help, there are a couple of way. First, buy some insurance, one of the links above should get you started. Second, you can forward this to as many people as possible.

You can laugh at our short sightedness, but we're just glad (and lucky) that it was before she went to bed.... she would not have made it out if she was asleep.