NSInail systems international

I have spent the last 2 hours researching for a particular subject.  What happens if you have a fire in a nail or beauty salon? 

Think of the amount of flammable chemicals in your salon; anything alcohol based (nail enamel, hair spry, hair styling aids, color, acetone, monomer).  That’s quite a list.  Here are some questions to ponder:

Do you rent or own your building?
Did you really read your lease (better yet, did your attorney read and translate it)?
Are you insured for loss of income during repairs?
Who is responsible to make the repairs?
What if your employees’ belongings are damaged?  Whose policy covers that?
What about damage to other stores in your center?  Whose insurance covers them?
What happens to your clients while you are rebuilding your salon?
Do your employees just sit by and wait for the shop to reopen?
How long will it take?

I’m asking these questions because recently, in fact just weeks ago, I had a small fire in my apartment.  Directly after the fire, I was too devastated to even come up with the proper questions to ask.  My mind was in a total fog.  I didn’t know the proper procedure after I made the initial call to the insurance company to file the claim.

My fire was caused by an unattended candle on my mantle (fancy name for pretty shelf).  Directly under the mantle was all my electronic equipment, stereo receiver, surround-sound speakers, karaoke machine, IPOD and flat screen TV.  Directly above my mantle were some collectables and an original watercolor painting.

Needless to say a portion of the wall burned and so did a portion of the ceiling.  Firey hot glass from the painting fell onto the carpet which caused burn holes.  Candle wax turned to melted lava and ran all down the back of the TV and other equipment.  The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me.
 
The smoke alarm was going off with the sweetest, gentlest woman’s voice repeating the words “fire, fire, fire, fire”.  That’s reassuring!  If I had been in a deep sleep, I never would have heard that little faint “fire alarm” voice.

What is truly a pity here is that you learn so much after the fact. 

First, I’ll never leave a seemingly innocent candle burning unattended again (obviously).  Second, I learned that I am entirely responsible for repairing the structure (walls, carpet, ceiling), because the fire was considered “negligent”.  Ouch!  Third, my renter’s policy only covers my “contents”.  In plain English, I would have to pay out of pocket for the wall repair, painting of the entire apartment, and new carpet.  Wow, a convenient little loophole in my policy, kudos to them.  Don’t forget, I also have a deductible.

Though I was sick with what happened, I was relieved that no one got hurt, that the damage was minimal (according to the insurance company), and that no one else’s apartment was involved.  The outpouring of love and the reaction of my friends and family was emotionally overwhelming.

Of course I kept thinking, “What if this happened nearer my little office area where I have a nano warehouse of nail products all with the little fire symbols on the back?”  It got my mind thinking of this blog.

What should you do to protect yourself and be informed and aware of exactly what kind of policy you need? 

I’ll discuss a list of things you may want to do as precautionary measure, before a disaster may occur in my next blog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Business Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.