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> Wear comfortable clothes, like sweats. Try to have a change of clothes. View this as stuff you may live in for a while.

I would recommend extra changes of underwear and socks, as those are the two bits that will get bad quickly (especially in a hot environment) and can make life pretty miserable with the resulting rashes/fungus.

Before you leave, if you have time, take pictures of your rooms, especially the expensive items (and their serial numbers) as this will make life much easier for insurance claims later on.

yep. you'll want clothes that typically hikers get for long multi-day hikes. synthetics and/or stuff like merino wool for your underwear and socks is much more performant than cotton, which can get nasty in one day of exertion.

Be careful of private (aka public) adjusters. They take a cut of your settlement. They can help you get more from insurance sometimes.... but if your house burns down with everything in it, you are likely maxing out. They can't get you more than you are insured for... but they will still take a cut.

There will for sure be people be swooping in like vultures after something like this to try to profit... Not all are bad, but I would just say, be careful.

In some states they amount to little more than scam artists. I'd hesitate before hiring one. Better, hesitate before speaking to one.

Funny, that is about how I feel about the entire insurance industry.

(Source: I worked for an insurance company for over five years.)

Theoretically, insurance is supposed to work like mortgage or other deaspool, where people pool money to cover a low chance but big risks by paying a small amount. However it got broken the moment it got capitalist. There is a whole idea of maximizing gain and doing essentially what is investment banking in some countries.

> it got broken the moment it got capitalist

Like, in 1681 when the "Insurance Office for Houses" was founded, or did you mean the maritime loans from the 4th century BC? Insurance and mutual aid societies have coexisted for literally millenia now, and if you think the latter are better, you're still free to join one (assuming your government doesn't force you into the former). But it's pretty nonsensical to blame capitalism if you don't like the way your insurance company currently operates.

Only approach one after the insurance company has made an offer that you think is terribly unfair. I worked with one in this situation and it worked out very well.

It depends on how much expensive merchandise you own. People forget just how quickly things add up. As a single example (out of hundreds in an average home), most people won't even remember to add their toaster to the insurance claim. And even if you remember to claim "a toaster", insurance will pay you $20 for the most basic toaster possible - rather than the $120 you spent on an 8-slot, temperature-aware model.

If you're claiming < $10k and you can live with receiving less back, you may be better off doing it on your own. If you're claiming much more, a (proper, non-scammy) insurance agent is going to multiply your return by an unimaginable amount. The majority of people are getting back less than 50% of their potential insurance payout. It can be worth paying an insurance agent $2000 to get back $30k instead of $10k.

Source: not an insurance agent or anything related; just remembering a Reddit thread where multiple people shared the gap between what they assumed they were eligible for, vs. what an agent squeezed out for them. Normal people don't know how to describe their possessions in proper detail. A decent insurance agent will ensure that what is being replaced is of equivalent value, rather than a bunch of the cheapest generic products.

Nevermind the toaster — clothes add up surprisingly fast. Replacing your wardrobe is a surprisingly expensive thing to do

Not just the money but your time. If you can't easily buy off the rack clothing then will be spending days replacing. You can always order another TV.

I suggest grabbing 1 suit & tie for any legal battles you might face with insurance companies.

> Nevermind the toaster — clothes add up surprisingly fast.

And your shower curtain, food in the fridge, extension cords and cables, business cards, books that you got as gift but never read, and so on.

Most people have tens of thousands of dollars worth of $5 items in their home. But in the stress of losing your home in a fire, you will forget about all of them unless you have a good walk-through video of the entire place, opening each cupboard and looking under each bed.

I guess with that in mind, an addition to the todo-list is to go through each room with a digital camera and carefully photograph everything, including each cupboard and each drawer.

> maxing out

Taking this off topic, but what point is a fire insurance if it can be "maxed out"?

To insure what you truly can't afford to lose. i.e. you definitely need the money to rebuild your house/kitchen/etc., you don't really need the replacement tv.

almost every type of insurance can be "maxed out". You buy a policy with a particular amount of coverage based on your perceived need. The insurance company charges you less for a lower cap, but if you put the cap too low, it won't cover everything you lost. So choose a policy with enough coverage.

Fraud prevention, so you can't claim you had more than was actually there and get exorbitant money back.

As an insurance company, how can you possibly value and determine adequate premiums for a potentially unlimited policy?

To protect the value of the house and stuff as evaluated at the time where you make the insurance deal (and calculate the premium), not at the time when the fire happens - generally, there wouldn't be any significant difference, so it's not a problem and doesn't make the fire insurance any less valuable.

In a small fire it makes sense to look at what exactly was damaged and evaluate the loss, but if a house and all the belongings need to be replaced, then you can calculate that value beforehand, and put that as a reasonable limit to be used for the insurance; I believe you'd agree that if you add a million dollar painting to a half-million dollar house then that would need an adjustment to the insurance policy if you want it to be covered.

> Edit: After the fire, when you go back, take photos and call an insurance adjuster immediately. Do this before you try to fix anything or do any clean up

Don't forget to take lots of pictures before the fire too.

That's a good tip, maybe for everyone - have an offsite backup (Gmail works, iCloud, whatever), with photos of your valuables, your place, etc.

As I mentioned lower, try to wear as little synthetic as possible, if worse comes to worse, it melts into flesh. Cotton at least burns. (Yes I know, lesser of two evils here).

Good call on the meds op.

I don't think he's planning on being in the house.

Sometimes people have to escape through the flames. Synthetic clothing can have a low burn point and can damage skin if only melted.

If it were me I would pack synthetics in a bag for use after reaching safety, and wear long sleeve shirt, pants, and boots while escaping in a vehicle or worst case on foot.

Would jumping into the shower and saturating your clothes before running through flames retard the burning of synthetic, if fully saturated? I ask cause I sleep in 100% polyester and nylon exclusively as cotton makes me sweat under a blanket.

If there's time, I'd also take photos of any higher value items you're leaving behind. It removes the risk of being unable to prove you owned something.

Just take a HD video of your whole house. Can take some still pictures too.

Take a photo of every item, not just the high value items. Those small items really add up to thousands. (unless you are a student/poor)

"Those small items really add up to thousands. (unless you are a student/poor)"

Given the price of most college and university books, a student could likely get very rich by simply buying used and having those burn if they looked new enough and could be documented as being in the home when the fire occurred.

I'm not talking about insurance fraud?

My only point was if you're a college student you probably aren't going to have the same amount and quality of items that someone more established has.

If you're a college student/low income/young you are likely to have, say, 1-2 bath towels bought from the Dollar Store; if you are more established then you're likely to have a nicer towel set that costs closer to $50. Those small items ($5-$50 each) are going to add up to probably be just as much, if not more, as any one expensive item. Every small thing matters.

Passport, too, and any documents that would be difficult or impossible to replace. Hopefully you already have these all in one place so they’re easy to grab.

Great advice. I'd add that it would be wise to record serial numbers and pictures of items that you cannot take with you. There are many sites out there that will host specifically this, but here's a project i worked on. https://reportit.leadsonline.com/

I'd add Birth certificate and phone/laptop charger.

I have most of the stuff mentioned in this comment permanently in a Pelican case. Grab and go.