Red Flag Warnings last Sat & Sun

[deerdown]

So, Saturday the neighbor decides to burn some crp. It gets away from him and heads NE, burns up a neighbors shed, the firemen save the house, but the fire continues and burns about 400a. The fire was just North of our NW Corner.....they get the fire put out and leave. Sunday morning the wind switches out of the North, fire picks back up and gets onto me. They save the shed, the cabin and the other structures but disk and plow up my CRP, and they also burn the rest of my CRP to take out future fuel sources.

Haven't put eyes on it, but the locals say the crp is a mess from the disking and plowing, 10a of the CRP was in a tree program with probably 6000 tress and shrubs planted of different species. Adjsuter hasn't called yet, but I'm already gathering information on what trees/shrubs may have been killed, will likely need to reseed WSG crp, smoke damage in cabin potentially, loss of recreational use, tower blinds and ladder stands potentially impacted.

Anyone been through something like this? What was your experience and the result? Neighbor has taken responsibility and has insurance, I'm party to the claim.

Just wondering what documentation I need to gather, what they'll ask for, what I need to press them on, etc - from your experience.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

No help here but man, sorry to hear that. That sucks!!

 

[deerdown]

 

[Hardwood11]

Im in the insurance business and have seen this happen . Not a smart move !! I would get the adjuster all the items with obvious damage! Approx cost .

The trees, may or may not be toast ? If they are…ask for compensation for the trees, any extras , & planting/labor . I’d include gas at 74c a mile, or whatever it is …

This is obvious negligence, hopefully he had a high liability limit !

Bummer!

 

[deerdown]

I'm not too tilted yet, probably because I don't know the extent of the damage and what a headache it may become.
I can't get eyes on it yet, and the insurance folks have me a party to the claim, but their adjuster hasn't called yet so I don't know how difficult this may/may not be.

Am I supposed to put a value on every tree, deer blind, mattress, pillow, blanket, calculate the plowed crp and estimate reseed cost etc? That's a lot of work if I have to do all that going back to 2009.... I mean, I want to make sure they include everything to make me whole, but how much of this do they try to put onto me?

In talking to the his insurance claims handler, she wasn't concerned about over-stretching his liability limit..so that's good, but she didn't say what the limit was.

It burned over 400a, including some lodged corn field the farmer was still combining. What a mess it may become......

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Where was this at roughly?

 

[Butch973]

So, Saturday the neighbor decides to burn some crp. It gets away from him and heads NE, burns up a neighbors shed, the firemen save the house, but the fire continues and burns about 400a. The fire was just North of our NW Corner.....they get the fire put out and leave. Sunday morning the wind switches out of the North, fire picks back up and gets onto me. They save the shed, the cabin and the other structures but disk and plow up my CRP, and they also burn the rest of my CRP to take out future fuel sources.

Haven't put eyes on it, but the locals say the crp is a mess from the disking and plowing, 10a of the CRP was in a tree program with probably 6000 tress and shrubs planted of different species. Adjsuter hasn't called yet, but I'm already gathering information on what trees/shrubs may have been killed, will likely need to reseed WSG crp, smoke damage in cabin potentially, loss of recreational use, tower blinds and ladder stands potentially impacted.

Anyone been through something like this? What was your experience and the result? Neighbor has taken responsibility and has insurance, I'm party to the claim.

Just wondering what documentation I need to gather, what they'll ask for, what I need to press them on, etc - from your experience.

Is your neighbor Josh Bowmar?

 

[T_Max]

The only advice I can give is try to give them the benefit of the doubt IF they are sincere. Nobody wants to have this happen. We have burned a ton of acreage and thankfully never had one get away, but we have been close and we take huge precautions. If the guy was negligent, that's a different story. For your own mental well being, get what you need to make your situation right, but if possible, try to be calm.

 

[Daver]

As someone who has done dozens of controlled burns over many years...lighting one up under red flag conditions is negligence.

I am sorry to see that damage, but the burner should be liable IMO.

 

[deerdown]

The only advice I can give is try to give them the benefit of the doubt IF they are sincere. Nobody wants to have this happen. We have burned a ton of acreage and thankfully never had one get away, but we have been close and we take huge precautions. If the guy was negligent, that's a different story. For your own mental well being, get what you need to make your situation right, but if possible, try to be calm.

I'm calm, but reserved as to how the adjuster will handle things. I'm concerned they may try to minimize the damage, or put all the work on me to come up with the damage estimates - That would be a pain

Waiting to hear what they want from me - I'm hoping the things they can do as easy as I can, they will do and not deflect back to me. i.e. They can measure plowed acres as easy, or maybe even easier than I can, get the cost of the seed, determine preparation, planting, maintenance costs. That's some of my types of concern.....

 

[Hardwood11]

Burning on a red flag warning day is likely negligence. It was so hot & dry, any wind can be a real problem .

 

[Daver]

I'm calm, but reserved as to how the adjuster will handle things. I'm concerned they may try to minimize the damage, or put all the work on me to come up with the damage estimates - That would be a pain

Waiting to hear what they want from me - I'm hoping the things they can do as easy as I can, they will do and not deflect back to me. i.e. They can measure plowed acres as easy, or maybe even easier than I can, get the cost of the seed, determine preparation, planting, maintenance costs. That's some of my types of concern.....

My opinion, based on numerous interactions with insurance agents and adjustors in a professional setting...you WANT to provide the numbers and I would start at replacement cost and then work from there if things are older, etc. Don't let some insurance nerd ( Sorry Hardwood ) tell you what they are going to pay...it's in their interest to aim low.

 

[Iowa]

I’ve been on both sides of this sort of thing, luckily we only burned cornstalks and never anything really expensive, and never too big of an area.
I would call someone who does tree plantings and have them give you a bid on everything that died in that fire. Maybe price the replacement of the trees that you had growing there not the size of tree that you planted in 2009. Have them include in the bid a reasonable price for watering and weed control etc.
In my opinion at this point it’s not your responsibility to find receipts for everything going back to 2009, it’s the insurance companies responsibility to replace what you lost.
One thing I’ve learned the last few years is that nothing puts a field fire out like a disk, this time of year make sure your disk is ready to roll and have it hooked up to something if you can.
We started disking fire breaks around fields in the fall the last few years whenever we get a chance.
I had a neighbor that lit a tree pile in August that had a spark blow out of it around Halloween that burned up 60 acres. The last time I burned some of our stalks it was a brush pile I’d burned with 6” of snow on the ground and 3 weeks later it was dry and sunny and it jumped out and burned 35 acres of our cornstalks. You just never know, had we disked our endrows it would’ve stopped it.

 

[deerdown]

My opinion, based on numerous interactions with insurance agents and adjustors in a professional setting...you WANT to provide the numbers and I would start at replacement cost and then work from there if things are older, etc. Don't let some insurance nerd ( Sorry Hardwood ) tell you what they are going to pay...it's in their interest to aim low.

Well, luckily, my wife is an expert bookkeeper/filer of documents, if there is such a thing? I have already found and pulled receipts of trees planted (9500) which I originally thought were around 6000 mark.... And I have pulled the CRP mixes of what crp fields I assumed they've disked and plowed.

I've talked to the FSA office and gotten their input.

This will be an interesting process - I hope the adjuster has experience in this type of field damage. We haven't even gotten into the cabin yet....

Your point kinda is what I'm fearful of.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I will say that red flag warning popped up late. Forcast as of Friday was showing a great burn day for Saturday.

We started a big CRP fire Saturday morning. I started to not like what I was seeing on the hour by hour and we elected to put it all out only completed 10% of the job. Played it safe and finished it monday. It would have been pretty easy to miss the forecast change if a person wasn't diligent about looking.

Not making excuses for the landowner just providing a perspective on applying a little grace.

 

[Farm boy]

As someone who has been through a hog barn fire.
Start carrying a pocket note pad and writing things down that comes to mind that r damaged or lost.
You will be surprised how much comes to mind even weeks latter.

 

[Hardwood11]

I was Iowa and Missouri both days and I saw a lot of big areas of smoke ! People were burning! There was a huge area of fire and smoke east of Leon ? Not sure what happened, but it didn’t look normal.

You could see it miles aways .

 

[Butch973]

I used to do some burns and always did firebreaks etc. Then one time it jumped at least a 20 ft wide break and that was it for my fire burning career. Humbled me for sure! From now on I call in the professionals! Lol

 

[tall@wide]

I was Iowa and Missouri both days and I saw a lot of big areas of smoke ! People were burning! There was a huge area of fire and smoke east of Leon ? Not sure what happened, but it didn’t look normal.

You could see it miles aways .

One of my neighbors had a burn get away from them that day Northwest of Leon. I heard 7 different fire depts responded to it.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

I put my burn off for a few weeks hoping for a little green up on the edges. I'm always ready for a beer after a successful burn.

There was a huge area of fire and smoke east of Leon ? Not sure what happened, but it didn’t look normal.

I was watching that while prepping mine...almost looked like they hit a patch of tires.