Nathan Johnson with Risk Managers, LLC , talking with Tanner Wilkinson
Q: It’s Christmas time, do you have everything ready?
A: No, not a chance. My wife has everything all locked in. I’m the guy that goes and gets the last minute bag of M&Ms. I have good intentions, but my skills of actually accomplishing Christmas stuff is lacking.
Q: I got lucky this year and found good sales on things in September and October, and thought “Why wait?”
Let’s jump into the insurance thing. What’s on the mind of insurance agents this time of year with the holidays?
A: The biggest thing we’re concerned about and anyone should be concerned about is home fires. It’s a wonderful time of year, we have extra lights on and music always playing, a lot of good things to get us into the spirit. With that being said, it is colder. It’s getting colder and there are things we do differently in our homes that we aren’t doing during the summer.
Q: How much is spent for property damage each year?
A: The report I get says that home fires cause Seven Billion dollars a year on US property, annually. That is between the homeowner, insurance companies , the communities coming together to help out. So, 7.2 billion dollars annually spent annually because of home fires.
Q: What are some of the reasons? Can we get into some details about what causes fires this time of year?
A: For me, I’m looking at faulty wiring. Older homes that maybe aren’t grounded out, overloaded circuits is a big one with us using a lot of extension cords. Malfunctioning appliances are often the culprit.
The two things I always thought were the culprit are; Christmas trees, when they get dried out. But more and more homes are using fake trees now, if you do get a real tree, that is a common causeof fire if it gets too dried out. And the other one is space heaters. We have had a few fires locally with space heaters, again over loading the circuits, running on extension cords that aren’t made for the amps or voltage, and it heats up those cords.
But the number one, that I did not really take into consideration, the number one cause of house fires is unattended cooking. We put something on the stove, maybe there’s some bacon grease or something there, and then we walk away and then combustion happens, and then all of a sudden we have a kitchen fire.
I knew kitchen fires occurred, but I didn’t realize that was the number one cause. At this time of year we have a lot of family visiting and we do extra cooking in our kitchens, but we also want to entertain. So be careful in your kitchens, keep an eye on it.
Q: Yes, you don’t want to dry out your turkey.
There are two things my dad checks on his phone at church, that’s fantasy football, and the temperature of his smoker. So there’s some great technology to help you keep track of temperatures while you’re cooking.
Let’s talk how we can protect our homes from fires this time of year.
A: Well the big three things, or couple of things: Always test your smoke alarms, change the batteries, make sure they work. I recommend fire extinguishers, whether you get an inexpensive one from Walmart, or you call the Fire Marshall and pay the extra to have it recharged every year.
The Red Cross actually advises that always have your escape plans. Test those with your kids. If they are in the basement, make sure they can get out through the windows. Cause the last thing you ever want is to have a fire and worry about one of your kids. With pets, that’s hard, they can’t get out on their own, but if you don’t see your kids outside, there’s just a major panic. So do those little test runs, you hopefully won’t ever need to use it, but it’s a little more ease to know they can get out of the home if they need to.
Q: Best place to reach you?
A: Come to our website, give us a call , you can get everything on our website, riskman1.com and you can come to our office in Ephraim or in Taylorsville.
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