Fire recorded statement

Should You Take a (Property Fire) Recorded Statement?

In the course of an investigation, you need to decide whether or not to preserve a person's verbal testimony in a recorded or written statement. Preserving testimony is valuable because memories fade, stories can change over time and parties can be difficult to locate as time passes.

Try the following:
1. Use General Opening Statement.
2. Identify person being interviewed:
a. Full name (spell it), age, address, marital status. b. Employer, nature of occupation.
c. Connection of person to loss - owner of damaged or destroyed prop­erty, witness, fire investigator, etc.
3. Establish circumstances surrounding loss:
a. When and where fire occurred (date, hour, location of premises)? b. Who discovered fire and turned in alarm?
c. In what part of premises was fire discovered burning?
d. What caused the fire:
(1) Can it be clearly attributed to a faulty product or to a person's negligence?
(2) By what means was fire extinguished - e.g., volunteer, public, or private fire department; sprinkler system? (Determine whether property was protected by sprinkler system and whether it was on at the time of fire; if system was off, find out why.)
e. Were police and fire departments notified? (If so, determine whether they investigated fire, and get names of persons conducting investigation.)
f. Find out if fire spread to premises from another building or from a tenant's residence in the same building. (Check carefully for possible subrogation.)
4. Have there been any previous fires on premises?
5. Does insured have insurance with any other carrier? Has he (it) ever? 6. Obtain facts and estimates of damage:
a. Extent of damage; area involved (e.g., number of rooms, dimensions). b. Repairs already made or under way; date and nature of repairs (i.e.,
temporary or permanent).
c. Estimated cost of repairs; name and telephone number of person giv­
ing estimate.
7. Use General Closing Statement.