Fire in Lions Bay

Written by cheryl wozny

Sunday, 17 August 2008

There was a fire today in Lions Bay on Panorama Avenue.  We will provide updates as they are received including how to assist the family who is effected by this fire. Comments (3) >> Louis Peterson said:   A house fire can be a devastating event, often with tragic consequences. The fire on Panorama Road, whatever its causes, is a wake-up call for attention to safety matters that our very conscientious Fire Department often tells us about - no excesses of combustibles on the property, safe electrical wiring and equipment, smoke/fire alarms, etc. The "Clean It Up" project endorsed in the spring addressed some of these issues, and hopefully will be repeated. Now to clean up in my own backyard. Louis K Peterson August 20, 2008 garret said:   I really feel for the family affected by this devastating event. Anyone have any updates on this? August 20, 2008 | url Robert Van Ginkel said:   Thank you for the sentiment. While we followed fire prevention techniques thoroughly, i.e., combustibles were properly placed and managed, smoke & fire alarms were fully operational, and the yard clean, nothing was left on etc., but we still had this fire. As mentioned in my posting we still do not know what had started it. However, the comment about following these techniques are very wise words indeed. Please accept these additional suggestions. Get a fire proof safe! We almost bought one 2 weeks prior to the fire at Costco and now really regret that we didn't do this. Get a backup hard drive and store all your electronic documents and photos on it and put it in this safe. Also, put in all the other valuable items in the safe such as passports, birth certificates, etc. Please, please look at your insurance policy. Make sure you have guaranteed replacement value on the house, which we thankfully did. Also, and I know this is a hard thing to do, but assess the value of your house at least to $300 per sq. ft. This is what it will cost to replace your house. While we valued our house fairly in our policy, we still had issues with the insurance company that we didn't assess it properly, but were given some leeway because I repeatedly insisted with the broker to increase our value, which luckily was recorded when setting our policy. Take pictures of everything inside and outside of your house. Just snap away at everything, and then put those photos on the hard drive in the safe. If you are away, even for just a weekend, let the neighbours know. Unfortunately for us the 2 neighbours next to our house were also away, so spread out your network through blockwatch or whatever other means. These are the immediate, and obvious to most, things that come to mind, but there are probably many other things that we could have done to make our lives a bit easier after this fire. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me. September 06, 2008 Write comment Show/Hide comment form Name Email Website Title Comment Add Comment

Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

 

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