Safety Tip - How To Extinguish a Grease Fire In Your Kitchen

As an insurance agent working directly with customers to help them with their home insurance and auto insurance, I see lots of accidents that turn into insurance claims. The most common type of kitchen fire that I see in this business is the fire that is started by grease catching on fire in a pan on the stove. The danger of this kind of fire is often exacerbated by the way people attempt to put it out. This blog will show you a safety tip that you should share with all of your friends and relatives. This knowledge could save a life or at the very least, might save a kitchen or a home from total destruction.

Grease fires are a special type of problem. And the ways in which you approach this fire can make the difference between a small isolated event in your kitchen and the loss of your home and your personal possessions. If you throw water onto a grease fire, the water, which is heavier than the oil, will sink to the bottom, then become superheated and the steam will push its way up and out of the pan. The force of this kind of explosion can be quite stunning and worst of all, this explosion will smear burning oil all over the kitchen from the ceiling to the walls. After this has happened, the best course of action would be to get out of the house and call the fire department.

Often people unknowingly spread misinformation about how to put out a grease fire. These include throwing flour or sugar on a grease fire in a pan. Both of these are very dangerous strategies, in fact it is estimated that throwing one cup of flour or sugar on a burning grease fire in a pan can create an explosion with the force of up to two sticks of dynamite.

Fortunately, there is a simple and low tech solution for putting out this type of fire.

Step 1 – Turn off the heat on the burner.

Step 2 – Rinse a dish towel fully in water and then wring it out.

Step 3 – Carefully place the wet dishtowel over the burning pan of grease and wait for it to cool down.

I have found a short video on youtube that you can watch to see a demonstration of this technique. Please take 30 seconds to watch this short video and then teach this to your children and those you love. This knowledge could save the life of someone you love. To see this 30 second video, please click here.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers. But beyond that, we want people to have the safety knowledge that can save lives in an emergency situation. If we can help you with your auto insurance, your home insurance, or your business insurance or life insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Source data for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found online by visiting www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Your Homeowners Insurance Policy and Hail Damage To Your Roof – A Warning

It’s Spring here in beautiful North Carolina and with the flowers comes the sudden and violent thunderstorms that produce hail. This hail has the potential to damage your roof. The hail also creates an opportunity for unscrupulous companies to try and take advantage of you. This blog will put you on notice to their tricks and tell you how to avoid their scam.

If you have a standard homeowners policy in NC, then you will have protection for your losses if your roof is damaged by hail. These claims rarely run into any difficulties and we process them quite frequently this time of year. But lately, we have been warned by our company claims departments that there are some scammers out there creating a bit of misery for homeowners in our area.

Here’s how they operate. After a hail storm, these roofing contractors will visit your home and offer to inspect your roof for hail damage from the recent storm. They always find that your roof has been damaged and needs to be replaced. If there was no damage to begin with, they manufacture some evidence to convince you. Next they assure you that your loss is covered by your home insurance policy and they tell you that they work with your insurance company already and can go ahead and get started right away. This is important they say because water could enter your home during the next storm and then your damages are really going to sky rocket. In order to get you started right away, they have you sign a contract which obligates you to pay for their work. You can bet that their rates are much higher than the market will usually bear but they convince you to ignore pricing because the insurance company will pay for it anyway.

The problems that this causes for homeowners are twofold. First of all, in many cases, there is no real damage to the roof and when the insurance company gets out there to inspect the claim, they find that there is no hail damage and thus no protection from the homeowners insurance policy. This leaves the homeowner stuck with the bill to replace a roof that didn’t need replacement. The other problem is that even if there is damage and the roof did need replacing, the insurance company may not agree to pay for roofing rates that are above the market rates and this leaves the homeowner holding the bag on the balance of the contract costs.

So how do your protect yourself? It’s easy really. Just don’t sign any contracts for roofing repairs until you have filed the claim with your insurance company and an adjuster has been on your roof and inspected the damages and discussed them with you. Don’t rush into a contract with the roofing company that knocked on your door. Have a patient, careful discussion with the claims adjuster before you commit to anything.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help all of our clients become informed and knowledgeable insurance consumers. If we can help you with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your business insurance or your life insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article can be found at www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

All North Carolina homeowners now face a personal burden for beach house hurricane losses.

The North Carolina State Legislature is crafting legislation, House Bill 1305, that will push the burden of catastrophic hurricane losses of beach property on to the backs of all unsuspecting property owners statewide. While there are some positive changes in this legislation, it feels like to me that they are sticking it to the people who are not there watching this legislation be made, and that is all the people who own property in North Carolina that is not coastal property.

The good news here is that the NC legislature has finally admitted that the North Carolina Beach Plan is broken and needs a fix. The Beach Plan insures $75 billion worth of property in coastal areas and has a meager $1.5 billion in reinsurance and reserves to pay claims. Clearly if a large storm hits our coast, there will not be enough money to pay the claims. To find out how we got to this point and read more details of this problem, click here.

The major parties working on this legislation are the coastal property owners and their lawmakers and the insurance companies. Right now, if a storm hits and the beach plan goes under, the bill must be paid by all the insurance companies doing business in North Carolina writing homeowners insurance and other property insurance including commercial property policies. This assessment is presently unlimited and this unlimited exposure is scaring the insurance companies in North Carolina into taking dramatic action which impacts all of their policyholders. One drastic example is the consent to rate letters that some major insurance companies are now sending to their homeowners policyholders.

House Bill 1305 which sailed through the house on July 15th will take care of some of the uncertainty for the insurance companies. Right now the insurance companies face the uncertainty of unlimited assessments to bail out the Beach Plan after a major storm. If this bill becomes law, then their assessments will be limited to $1 billion per storm. Still quite a lot of money but now it is a number that they can plan for. So all in all, I think the insurance company lobby did a pretty good job of getting what they wanted.

But if you add another billion dollars to the amount available for a major storm, you will see that we still now have only $2.5 billion to protect over $75 billion in assets. So where does the rest of the money come from? Well the biggest chunk is a new storm assessment that can be added to every property insurance policy in North Carolina. If this bill becomes law, and we have a major storm, then you can expect to see an extra charge added to your homeowners insurance of up to 10%. And it is unclear in the wording of the bill as to whether or not that is a one time charge or can go on and on until the Beach Plan is made whole again. The open ended nature of the wording leads me to believe that this charge could remain on your policy for years and years to come.

Those owning property at the coast, who are insured through the Beach Plan, will have to give up something as well. In the event of a major storm, they will face a deductible of no less than 1% of the total value of the property. There is a clause that allows for even higher deductible percentages if needed.

I disagree with the legislators who say that our coastal property is a state treasure for all of us and all of us living in this state should be on the hook to support the coast. I think that the fairest solution is to raise the rates on beach property to more accurately reflect the risks and let those who own property or rent property at the beach carry the burden. In South Carolina the Beach Plan rates are about 10 times what ours are and their Beach Plan is adequately funded. This is the fairest way to handle this problem. In all cases of insurance, the system works best when those in control of the exposure are the ones who pay for the insurance.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC we work hard to make sure that all of our clients are informed insurance consumers. If you have any questions about how this might affect your homeowners insurance policy, or if you need any other help with any of your insurance policies, please call our office, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was taken from www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

Credit Protection – Not Always Such A Good Deal

With all the job uncertainty out there, credit card companies are selling more of their “credit protection insurance” to cardholders. The big sell these days is that your card payments will be made if you are out of work. Sounds great, until you read the fine print.

In most cases, the unemployment coverage doesn’t kick in if you voluntarily leave your job or are let go for performance reasons. And just having your hours scaled back won’t trigger coverage either.

In addition, these policies are very costly, ranging from 35 to 99 cents for every $100 of balance on your card each month. So, if you are carrying a $3000 balance on your card you would pay between $10.50 and $30 a month for this protection. In most cases, you would be much better off applying this money to your outstanding balance.

There are those that might argue that at least this is good coverage if you die or become disabled. Again, the fine print might make you change your mind. In most cases the definition of disabled means that you are unable to do any work of any kind. That’s a recipe for never having to pay a claim if you ask me. The standard disability policy will provide coverage if you are unable to do the job that you were doing when you became disabled. At any rate, the cost per $1000 of protection is between 5 and 10 times what you would pay an insurance company for life insurance or disability insurance.

It’s clear that these credit protection plans require the buyer to read the fine print very carefully. They are probably only a good deal for those that are uninsurable due to medical conditions. My advice is to purchase your disability insurance and your life insurance from a company that is in that business instead of from your credit card company.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all consumers to be informed consumers. If you have any questions about your own life insurance or disability insurance needs, or if you need help with your auto insurance, home insurance or business insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was taken from www.insuranceanswerguy.com

Homeowners – Before That Contractor Starts Work, Get The Insurance Certificate

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we make it a top priority to help our friends and clients with information that helps them protect their assets. One mistake many homeowners make is to let a contractor begin work at their home without first checking to be sure that this contractor has the right insurance protection for his or her business. There is a quick and easy way to do this and this practice is standard in most business to business (B2B) type transactions.

Before you let that plumber or landscaper or any type of repair worker begin a job at your home, you should first determine that they have insurance protection so that if someone is injured, or your property is damaged, you don’t have to file anything under your homeowners insurance policy. Simply ask them to have a certificate of insurance sent to you. This is a simple task, all the contractor will have to do is ask his insurance agent to email, fax or mail you a copy of this certificate.

Once you receive the certificate of insurance, what then? Well, there are a couple of things you want to look at closely. First of all, make sure that your name and address is .listed in the certificate holder section. And make sure that the certificate came from the contractor’s insurance agent and not from the contractor himself. This will increase the odds for you that the certificate is genuine and that the listed insurance coverage is actually in force. Believe it or not, there is an active market selling fake insurance certificates, I have even seen them for sale on ebay.

These certificates break down the insurance protection by policy type, so there will be a section for General Liability Insurance, Workers Compensation Insurance, Business Auto Insurance and Umbrella Insurance. Next you want to check and be sure that there is a policy number showing in the General Liability Insurance Section and in the section for Workers Compensation Insurance. These are the policy types that will be most important to homeowners..

Once you have verified that your contractor has these two types of policies in place, take a quick look at the limits of coverage. A North Carolina workers compensation policy will pay claims based on the statutory regulations so you won’t really need to worry about the limits there. But in the general liability insurance section, you want to be sure that the amount of coverage showing is high enough to satisfy you. Think about the worst case scenario of damage that this contractor could do to you, your family or your property and make sure there is enough of a limit there to pay for that loss.

Many homeowners just hire contractors to work in their home without giving insurance any thought at all. But some contractors cut corners and may not have enough insurance or any insurance at all. If they cause you a large loss to your health or your property, you may find yourself with no recourse. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all of our homeowner clients to be safe from an un-insured contractor. If you have a certificate of insurance and are not sure how to read it, please contact us by calling, toll free 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at http://www.clinardinsurance.com/ and we will help you understand exactly what the certificate your contractor gave you covers.

The source information for this article was pulled from http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com/.