A little over two years ago, Dave met a woman that had a problem. She had failed to dis-connect the hose from her outside hose bib. Freezing weather burst the pipe. True to his nature, and his belief, and I quote; "To make a friend, be one". He offered to help. There was no discussion of any charge for fixing the problem. Now Dave use to have a lot of rental property, so he knows a lot about fixing things. Now hose bibs are designed to screw into a fitting deep in the wall. Well, the builder, or plumber, of this house decided to save the cost of this $.79 part and sweated the hose bib to the water supply. Not knowing this, Dave tried un-screwing the bib. This resulted in further damage to the bib. To the point that it would not seal when the water was turned on. On the inside wall where he might get to the problem, was a freezer, washer & dryer. So Dave proceeded to remove a few brick from the outside wall. That's when he discovered the fitting was sweated.
Not wanting to leave the lady in a bind with her water turned off. Dave then proceeded to un-sweat the fitting, using a heat shield to protect the area behind the fitting. In spite of his precautions, something sparked within the wall. Dave immediately informed the lady of the problem, asked her to call the fire dept. The phone was dead. Dave ran to several neighbors finally getting someone at the third house to call. Upon return, the lady had holed up in a back bedroom with her dogs. Smoke was beginning to fill the house. Dave helped her and the dogs to a safe area. The dogs were frantic. Shutting the dogs away in an out bldg., Dave and a neighbor proceeded to do what they could, which wasn't much except to pull the electric meter.
About 15 or 20 minutes passed before the volunteer fire dept. showed up. Flames were just beginning to show thru the soffit just above where Dave had been working. Dave met the firemen in front of the house and informed them that no one was in the house and that flames were just beginning to come through the roof at the back of the house. They went straight into the front door, another fireman set up a large fan blowing into the house to "clear the smoke" they said. Less than 30 minutes passed and the whole house was consumed by fire.
The lady told Dave not to worry, they had plenty of insurance. So he didn't. He felt badly about what happened and was thankful no one was hurt or injured. It was an accident.
Now, nearly two years after this accident, Dave is being sued by the
insurance company. He has no insurance to protect him. His retirement annituity
is about the only asset he has. He gets by on that meager sum (less that
$17,000 per year) and can hardly afford a lawyer or the $210,850.66
dollars they are seeking in the lawsuit. Nearly all of Dave's assets were
eroded away seven years ago in divorce court.
Damned lawyers!! May be why he won't hire one.
Well, that is Dave's story.
Can we help? Lets see.
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