NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
sistently bad fire record we do retire from the risk. Now we have no way of educating
that fellow, and whether it has any influence on him I can’t say.
I had another question submitted from the floor, and I am going to ask Harold
Estabrook of the Aetna Insurance Company to answer it. This is a divided question.
One, are steam-boiler explosions covered by comprehensive policies covering homes
against fires, windstorms, etc.? And’, two, if not, how can such coverage be secured?
MR. ESTABRoOK: There are two forms of explosion insurance. One is steamboiler
insurance, which is a form of in.surance itself. The second is normal explosion
that could be found and is so-called inherent in a piece of property. Most dwellings
have gas in their homes. An explosion can develop from the presence of gas. Such an
explosion is covered under exten.ded .coverage, and accidental explosion, like gun-powder.
Your boiler insurance is covered under boiler insurance specifically and~ is excluded
under .c.ur extended coverage contract. It can be purchased as a separate rate policy and
would be covered under your policy. Does that satisfy the questioner?
CHAIRMAN F, RSKINE" I wonder if any other members of the Panel would like to
talk on this.
MR. WF.ST~RV~.*.T: I want to bring out very strongly this, that there is an honest
estimate of lcss on any fire. When the policyholder or building owner arrives at the
amount of damage that was done and the adjuster separately and independently sets
up a figure that is close together, nobody is trying to rob the other. On the other hand,
the public adjuster is trying to get as much as he can out of the same fire. The third
is indemnity.
If you lose a roof in a windstorm and that rcof is twenty years’ old, there is very
little value in that roof and yet some of these men will try to get a new roof for one
that is worn out. Our adjusters have no interest in cutting down the amount of any
recovery. Our men are taught in school that we have only one basis of adjusting a claim,
and that is, what it is actually worth. I will grant you there are times where the
difference of opinion is so much that it takes cooler heads to solve it, but generally
speaking, if an adjuster employs a contractor and the owner employs another contractor,
they are going to come out at a reasonable close figure and a public adjuster Concerned
with getting more than the policyholder is entitled to, something is wrong somewhere.
I suspect that there are occasions of people who are trying to get something out of someone
else’s misfortune.
CHAIRMAN ERSKINE: Are there any other questicns? I have a card here, "How
can the Fire Chief assist the school in planning fire drills? ’’
MRS. CURLEY: At the beginning of every school year it is the duty of the school
principal to plan a fire drill. Often he has had enough experience to be able to plan a
good fire drill by himself, *but I am sure if he would call upon some of you men to.
help him plan his fire drills they would~ be better. I have observed in my travels over
Massachusetts in several places they have put on fire drills for me and as the children
filed out and tok their positions in the school yard I have asked this question. Where
does the fire apparatus come in? And the principal would say, this direction or that
direction, and immediately he says, "Why the fire apparatus would have to cut right
through those lines .c.f child,ren." I think he could take your advice as to where to station
the children when they leave the building.
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