Fire Damage in Unit

Here is good one for some of you to chew on a bit.

Was notified today of a fire in a unit. A disabled lady, in a wheel chair, an amputee of one leg, evidently turned around in her kitchen, "turning on a burner" on her electric range without knowing it. A pan got overheated on the burner, catching some nearby paper goods on fire. The net result was a smoked up kitchen, blistered paint, and burned counter tops. The smoke infiltrated the furniture and carpets, and left a strong residual. The smoke alarm went right off, and a neighbor called 911 for the fire department. The fire department checked everything out, made a report, and left. We are in between managers on this property, so no one was present at the time. I was notified today of the incident, but have not been to the property. The lady tenant has NOT notified the emergency number posted on the vacant office door.
I know of the lady, and I know she has no insurance or assets. The fire chief, a good friend of mine, phoned me and said it was going to take a restoration to get rid of the smoke, and out of her furniture and carpets. Also some painting and counter tops. Let's say for a good figure about $2,500.00. Could be more, or less.

First of all, I doubt the story about the wheel chair turning on a burner as it turned around. I would suspect she left the pan on the burner and went outside or went to sleep. But no way to prove anything. I am suspect that she never has (yet) reported the incident to management by phone. I think the neighbor heard the smoke alarm and went in to find the fire in the unit, the lady gone.

I think the deductible on the owners insurance is $2,000. The lady has no insurance. The lady has no money. I doubt she can live in the unit with it smoked up and such.

I guess my question is who pays? (Moral and legal).

Herb, I feel this is the responsibility of the Resident. I had a similar experience less than a year ago. There was no fire, but the unit sustained smoke damage. Although the Resident had renters insurance , it would not cover restoration due to the lack of actual fire damage. Our Maintence Tech secured the door that night it happened and the next day installed a new one because the fire department had broken it. The Resident's parishioners tok up a collection to help them pay for the new door. The fire restoration company comped the clean up as well, so all was taken care of immediately. The property was out no money damages.

I also had a small kitchen fire like this when I managed a Tax Credit property. The resident is responsible! None of my residents had any extra money, either. I allowed payments to be made by the residents, but she moved out before we every got a dime.

I would ask the resident if I could contact family members or friends. If she allows it, have a meeting with them and ask them to solicit donations to pay for the damage.

A few yard sales, bake sales should pay for it.

Then, when I took over my new property. Someone (a neighbor was suspected) broke into 3 apartments and set small fires in them. One particular apartment had a lot of items stolen, including Christmas gifts. The apartment was uninhabitable after the fire, so he took another apartment. We didn't pay for anything, even though it was heart-breaking. That's when I started our policy on requiring renter's insurance.

We solicited donations. He got money from his church, another church got him a laptop computer. He also got a Wii, which was stolen and a few other items.

He ended up moving just a couple of months later because he said he didn't feel safe in the neighborhood. We evicted the person we suspected of setting the fires.

As the manager of a seniors tax credit community I can relate to the disable resident with little to no disposable income. This has happened here twice. Each time we paid to get the apartment back in habitable condition, but the resident was responsible for paying back the cost. I set up a monthly payment plan; and put it in writing. We were completely reimbursed in one instance and the other moved out early so we did have to send her to collections.