Our home was built in 2 parts 1 in 1904 one in 1943 and needed work. We had been doing a 6 month reno, 6 years later on June 10/2015 we were only 1 counter top and 8 cupboard doors from finishing and listing our house. A thunder storm rolled thru, lightning hit the pole just in front of the house, melting the wires off of the transformer [actual pools of metal on the ground below] it also gave the wife and I a mild shock made the hairs on my arm stand up. No big deal I thought, called for repair and it was fixed in less than 2 hrs. We continued on for the day, finished up had dinner, etc, went to bed. Woke up the next day, went out to the kitchen to make coffee, thinking to myself what the hell is that smell? did my wife spill some cleaner or something, oh well I thought. When my wife got up the smell was worse she said what did you spill to me, I said nothing I thought you did. So I started looking around, went to the basement door opened it and wow furnace fuel smell punches me in the face. I go down the stairs and there is a large pool of fuel on the concrete. I look to see why and spot a hole in the line about the size of straw over top of the dirt part of the basement. I run out and shut the tank off. I started to wonder how the hell did a hole get in it, I was walking/crawling around leveling up the dirt floor in the crawl space part of the basement the day before but I was almost positive I did not step on it [you always have some doubt] by now the fumes are real bad and its burning our eyes. I did not know what to do so I called for a repair on the line and started to shovel the contaminated dirt in to a 5 gal bucket and carried it up stairs then put it into the front bucket of my backhoe. Once I got down to the level of the concrete floor the oil started to flow up like a spring, I am totally screwed I was thinking. The oil was now into my sump hole so I unplugged it and started to skim it off the top of the water with a can and poured it into the bucket I filled the pail 3 times before the furnace repair showed up [started up the outside burn barrel and burned it as I did not know what else to do] by then all I can taste is oil, my eyes are burning and I am coughing a lot. Furnace repair says holy xxxx you have to get out and we have to phone the M.O.E. My guts turned inside out and I was stepping on my heart, this is going to cost me big time and I just lost my house, as I have zero money, you might as well of told me one of my boys died, I felt that bad. I ended up at the emerg because of exposure, I had to be cleaned up eyes flushed etc and was on oxygen for awhile.[ I am ok now.] When we got back home,[standing outside] we decided to try and see if our insurance would cover it, and surprise it was covered, what a roller coaster of feelings as I was now still upset but relieved. Not only were we covered for the remediation we were also covered to stay at a motel or other accommodation, we ended up at a cottage resort with a full kitchen. Our house had to be moved 120 ft to the side. A new basement and septic installed.150 tons of contaminated soil had to be removed. The excavation had to be left open for several months then 150 tons of new soil put in along with 5 monitoring wells to see if there is any more contaminate. The cost including the cleaning of the soil $125.000.00 To move the house cost $60.000.00, new basement cost $22.000.00, new septic cost $7.800.00, unhook/remove furnace and ducting, replace furnace and ducting $7.800.00 remove old plumbing, install new $8000.00,unhook all electric wires reconnect 8.200.00 new under ground main hydro supply including disconnect/reconnect $10.000.00 new driveway $12.000.00, new sod 20.000 sq ft $8.000.00, drywall repair and paint $7.700.00, replace all soft materials IE: food stuffs,clothes, furniture, beds and bedding $20.000.00 stay at resort $1000.00 per week from June 12th- Oct 10th, $15.000.00, 1800 kilometers of travel at 30 cents per, $540.00 a food allowance of $50.00 per week,$650.00. Total cost All paid for by the insurance company no arguments.$302.690.00 Plus there are still many small things to be paid out. You hear all kinds of bad things about insurance company's, ours treated us like family, our adjuster was absolutely great. We are now back in our home and on track to list for the 1st of Jan. If you do not have insurance get it, the small amount it costs is well worth it.
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Tue Dec 05, 2023 7:29 am by 
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Subject: Lightning can be a +_)(* 
