This is a subject that I am asked about quite regularly since the fire so I will use this a forum for the importance of insurance. July 22nd 2001 was one of the worst days of our lives. We were at the local fair that week. We in fact had just had the rabbit judging on Wednesday. Each of the boys had taken 4 rabbits to show and a doe with litter. Thank God for that!!! As those were the only rabbits we had left. Both boys had done well at the fair and had both taken their breeds but they had “their rabbits” mine were in the barn. They in fact did not have all their best rabbits at the fair because it was dreadfully hot and did not want to stress them. So as a result our very best animals were left at home in the cool barn with their water bottles and fans. It was a day like any other Saturday at the fair. The livestock auction was in the morning. Josh took the poultry with his grand champion pen of market chickens so he was happy. Joe, who was runner up, was happy with what his brought also. All was right with the world…………other then the heat that is. The poultry were sent home because of it. After the auction both the boys went to work and my husband and I went to Rochester to fetch some supplies. We needed some antibiotics for the rabbits to have on hand and a few other things so away we went. The day was a nice relaxing day. When we came home from Rochester we met the boys back at the fair. Like I said all was right with the world. Ben and I got home that night at 10:30. Josh came home at 11:00 and Joe rolled in at 11:30. I was on the computer so we talked for a while and went to bed at 11:30. At 12:45 we awoke to a neighbor girl pounding on the door and screaming fire. I ran out of the bedroom to see that all to familiar orange glow in the yard. I knew instantly it was a fire as we had lost a barn at home when I was a teenager. That had always haunted me at animals where lost in that fire also. At that time the pickup that was parked in the front of the barn in husbands workshop was completely engulfed and the side of the barn was starting to go also. We called the fire dept. and ran outside. I had wet a rag and had intended on running around behind the barn to get whatever rabbits out I could. Hopefully some of my chins and blue buck I had just taken BOV with at mini-rex nationals. But when I got out into the yard. I realized my son’s endro car was parked next to the fuel tank. The paint was beginning to blister and we only had minutes to move it or it would blow taking the fuel tank, and machine shed and may-be the house with it. We had to move it!! And fast! By the time that was done there were flames in the rabbit room. All my babies where gone! It was so fast! The fire dept. was there by now but they said there was nothing they could do. Then the south side of the grainery caught fire. They did manage to put that out. The fire had started approx. 12:30 and by 3:30 the barn was gone. It is so strange that ones life can change so fast. The mass coaxes that ensued are still following us today. Our barn was our refuge. It was divided into 3 parts. The front 3rd was Ben’s shop. He had a lawn mower room where he stored the brand new John Deere riding mower and brand new push mower neither of course were insured yet. It also house the new weed whip bought that spring and the newer rotor tiller bought last fall. A dream come true for Ben as the one he had used was a real pile of junk. This room also contained gas cans and some wire, as my husband is an electrician. The shop part of the barn contained the John Deere 1520 tractor that he had just finished reconditioning and painting. His pickup. The LB White heater, our garden tools, and pretty much every other kind of tool known to man. He had many specialty tools also because of his job. The rabbit room contained the 74 rabbits not at the fair. Most all of the adults had been registered and some where granded out. We had some JR’s that had just had their nest boxes taken away. Of course all or our rabbit equipment was in there. All the cages and carriers. The show table the scales. The next boxes. I had just gotten feed and shavings on Friday. And in the back 3rd of the barn was the grass hay for the rabbits. All of our bikes and some cattle water tanks and other misc. items. All of it was gone now nothing was saved but a feed scoop. Why that I do not know. But in the end we lost about $40,000 of things we did not have insured. All the vacations that were not taken because we wanted to have something nice instead. All the movies we did not see and dinners we did not go out for. All to have a nicer life as we aged. We felt we would have more comfortable lives when we retired if we made these sacrifices. We lost twice now. This is where the insurance comes in. We only had $10,000 on the barn in would cost $200,000 to build a new one like it with as much room. Most of what was in the barn was not insured!! Big mistake on our part. We thought of all the buildings on the farm the barn was the safest and in the best shape. It was tinned inside and out. It had been completely rewired 7 years prier with all the conduit being on the outside of the walls. We thought having all the wiring on the outside of the walls would make it safer. The barn roof was in good shape. The walls of the rabbitry were insulated. And, the floors though out were all cemented. We thought this building would last a long time. Who would have thought a pickup would have brought down the whole building! And, in just a few hours! About a year before the fire I had asked about insuring my rabbits. I was told that they could only insure them as livestock and that I would get back $3 per rabbit in case of tragedy. I of course thought what’s the point? After all $3 on a $300 rabbit is a slap in the face right. Well, after the fire, Norma Westgard and Sara Amesle both e-mailed me and said they have riders on their homeowners insurance for their show rabbits. If I had only known before! This makes me physically ill to think that not only did I loose 74 rabbits but the homes of the ones I had left were gone. I had no cash available to get them new ones. All of our feed was gone. We had no carriers to get rabbits at the fair home. They had all been stacked next to the door ready to go. If I would have had insurance on the rabbits and their equipment I would have at least been able to buy some equipment right away to take home what I had left. Thank God Richard Stienberg gave us some used cages that day to bring home the rabbits. He even through in a carrier!! Madelyn Beckstom spent most of her day busy calling people to find us used cages and such. The Dapper family did our chores that AM at the fair and borrowed us carriers to bring home the fair rabbits. I honestly don’t know what we would have done with out these people. We were in such a daze if they had not stepped in and helped us I don’t know what we would have done had our friends not chipped in. But, the fact that we had no coverage on the rabbits is still making life difficult today. Think about all the equipment that is necessary to make their lives comfortable and ours easier. I didn’t even own a carpet square! Things are getting better day by day. But please think about getting insurance on your animals. Not just to replace your animals…but to help if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. The fire happened and there was nothing we could do about that. We still do not know why the pickup started on fire and most likely never will. But having enough insurance, on the building, the rabbits and their equipment would have saved us countless hours of wondering how will we pay for that now? We did not want to be insurance poor. But guess what. That was a bad decision and I hope you make a better one then we did. Jeannie
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