In six years as a volunteer firefighter and chaplain for his local fire department, Mark Hines had long grappled with the question:
“How do you help someone when their house burns down?” he asked.
But on March 19, 2023, it became more personal.
Mark and his family would receive an answer from a dynamic partnership between his insurance agent, adjuster and carrier.
When Disaster Hits Home
When Mark’s wife woke him up at 3:31 a.m., he knew what was happening. His Rexford, N.Y., house was on fire and, based on Mark’s assessment, had been for some time.
“We were asleep 15 feet from the flames,” Mark remembers. “I grabbed the fire extinguisher, and my wife gathered the kids and got them outside to the van, which we moved away from the house immediately.” It was 22 degrees outside at the time.
Thanks to Mark’s professional background, he knew that the situation was more than he and his fire extinguisher could handle alone. Before long, some familiar faces arrived as fire trucks pulled up.
“These are my buddies,” Mark said. “Like any house fire, they wanted to do everything they could to save the home once they knew we were all out safe, but they were working in an enclosed basement.”
The team finally brought the fire under control. The upstairs was intact, but the basement was a different story. Due to the fire reaching more than 1,000 degrees, the basement sustained significant damage and was ultimately condemned and determined to be unsafe to enter.
Mark and his family would need to rebuild.
With his wife and three kids safe, Mark wasn’t sure where they should go from there. He did know what to do next: call his agent, Bruce Whiting.
“Mark was so cool and collected when we spoke on the phone. I was not prepared for what I saw when I arrived at the home,” Bruce said. “My jaw dropped when I saw it. The house was destroyed.”
‘This Can Be a Simple Process’
After arranging living accommodations for the family and coordinating some of the essentials to help them get by, attention turned to Mark’s home policy and the coverage available to rebuild.
That’s when ERIE Property Claims Specialist Paul DeSapio got to work.
Mark called Paul’s efforts instrumental in the rebuild.
“Paul told me, ‘You can drive the direction of the rebuild here. If you’re meticulous about providing estimates and invoices, this can be a simple process,’” Mark said. “And it was.”
Mark compiled a spreadsheet that cataloged each expense, payment, date the work was performed and when payment was made. He also kept a running tally of payment and invoice totals, linked to digital copies of invoices and receipts, and tracked payouts from ERIE.
“(Mark and his wife Megan) were excellent, and they really took over the process,” Paul said. “I always tell Customers to keep me informed about their house as best they can, and they really delivered.”
Paul credited Mark’s diligence in helping hasten the rebuild. While it often takes 18 months or more, the Hines family moved back in just less than a year after the fire.
Mark’s diligence was not just reserved for the rebuild, though. He also saved his family’s photos to the cloud and kept his family’s important documents in a fireproof safe that survived the fire.
“People always think it can’t happen to them,” Mark said. “But I took every precaution there was in the book, and it still happened to us, so I encourage people to be proactive in safeguarding what’s valuable.”
Coverage + Collaboration
Mark’s decision to purchase Guaranteed Replacement Cost (GRC) coverage on the home at Bruce’s recommendation also played a key role in putting the pieces back together. Thanks to GRC, which pays for the full cost of rebuilding back to the previous size and specifications,[1] there was plenty of coverage to work with.
“Guaranteed Replacement Cost is truly intended to get people back to where they were before the claim happened, and quite frankly, based on my experience, nobody comes close to doing it like ERIE does,” Bruce says. “Especially post-COVID, costs to rebuild can be extremely unpredictable, and there’s really just no substitute for having that coverage in place.”
In addition to exceptional coverage, the compassionate service that is ERIE’s hallmark was also at the center of the claims experience for Mark and his family.
“It’s why ERIE is our first choice of carriers. ERIE is going to pay the claim in a fair manner, and they are known for a claims process that emphasizes service and support, not obstacles,” Bruce says. “They’re going to roll up their sleeves and get it done.”
That’s exactly what happened.
“As this all unfolded, I sort of remembered Bruce talking to us about this Guaranteed Replacement Cost coverage, but that’s the kind of thing that you cover when you’re buying the policy and then you forget about it the next day,” Mark says.
Mark and his family are now back home, whole once again. And it wouldn’t have been possible if the right coverage and the right people hadn’t been there.
“I credit both of them because the whole role of insurance is to get people past tragedy and back up on their feet,” Mark said. “And that’s exactly what Erie Insurance did.”