In fire claims, some assets are destroyed and, inevitably, must be replaced. Others, on the other hand, only sustain partial damage and can be recovered. Indeed, what tends to happen in serious incidents is that the fire directly affects some areas of the risk whilst other parts of the plant only undergo damage due to smoke, heat, the water sprayed by the Fire Brigade or by the risk’s own automatic extinguishing systems, or the corrosive gases that are formed such as HCI (Hydrochloric Acid), etc.
In these cases where the damage is only partial, it is both expedient and cost-effective to involve companies specialising in cleaning, drying, decontamination and recovery of the equipment, whether mechanical, electrical or electronic. These companies, some of which fortunately we have in Spain, for example BMS Technologies, Debeer- Belfor, Recover, etc., must intervene as soon as possible since the corrosion and oxidation processes worsen day by day. Therefore, the chances of success are far higher with an early intervention in the loss event.
Apart from minimising the Material Damage in the case of partial damage, the Consequential Losses can also often be reduced by the intervention of these firms. In fact on some occasions damaged machinery can be temporarily repaired and can then continue to operate for a few months until new replacements are obtained, thereby minimising the Loss of Profits.
In most cases both the Insurance Company as well as the Insured are very satisfied with the involvement of these companies since they can resolve what could have posed a major problem for them, such as being unable to produce over several months until the replacement machinery arrives, which in the case of complex machinery could take some 12 or 18 months.
Moreover, at VANTEVO CLAIMS ADVISORS, besides using these companies in certain loss events, we also involve companies that are specialists in salvaging partially damaged stocks, since they perform a task based upon the classifying and cleaning of the partly affected stocks that can be highly cost-effective for Insurers.