When ONCE in a Lifetime is Once Too MANY
From: JPM Magazine
Jan/Feb 2013 Issue
IREM Website
Link: http://www.jpm-digital.org/jpm/20130102#article_id=246234
Six months ago, I was the person who you could find sitting down to lunch with colleagues to recall my good fortune for never suffering through a building fire. Sure, there were minor blazes—one due to a tenant mistaking his wall heater for a way to dry out his wet bath towel and the other due to a faulty alarm clock of all things—but a three-alarm fire? Nope. Never. Not me.
Today, I am no longer that person. I have learned more than I care to know both about human nature and the horrendous headache involved with experiencing a fire at one of your properties. All things considered, I am better for it—it is a feather in my cap of experience, so to speak.
The Day of and THE AFTERMATH
As fate would have it, I received the call at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. This was a three-alarm fire that required 16 fire engines, shut down traffic at two major intersections and, ultimately, destroyed eight units at our complex, which displaced 30 people. It was also a major media spectacle due to a slow news day. Needless to say, we made the headlines. Fortunately, no persons or pets were injured. Unfortunately, the cause of the fire was a tenant cooking with grease and leaving the range unattended—entirely preventable.
Putting in WORK
So, if you are a rookie and have yet to join the fire club, or if you are a veteran who has several fires under your belt, here are a few things to consider:
- Keep your insurance agent and insurance carrier's claim numbers in your Smart-phone or use the Dropbox app to store policies and key contact info. This helped get the ball rolling immediately in terms of remediation, repair and rebuilding.
- Have a pre-written policy in place on how to handle the media, who should or should not talk and who should or should not be allowed on the property. I noticed newspaper and television reporters entering the property and interviewing anyone they could to spin a story. At one point, I was amused to hear that 30 units had been destroyed. Amused, of course, because there are only 23 units in the complex. When I broke the news to the reporter, she was disappointed to have lost such a sensational sound bite.
- Use this as an opportunity to fill vacant space at other buildings you may own or manage. We were able to relocate five of the displaced families into three of our other properties.
As day one came to an end, the Red Cross Field Manager informed me that in all of her experience, she had never seen an owner and a manager working together with residents onsite like we did. To see that our efforts were recognized and appreciated, that meant the most.
NICHOLAS A. DUNLAP, CPM,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
IS VICE PRESIDENT OF DUNLAP PROPERTY GROUP, AMO, IN FULLERTON, CALIF.
MR. DUNLAP IS ALSO THE AUTHOR OF THE FOUR BENEFITS.
AVAILABLE AT IREMBOOKS.ORG.
