Blaze
extinguished 'in less than an hour'
With
an extensive background in alternative dispute resolution,
mediations, investigations and the ins and outs of seeking a
settlement with insurance carriers, she is adamant about her role.
Her
business card, printed in bright red with reversed white type,
proclaims “Proof of Loss,” her motto: “We work for you not the
insurance co.” It lists a rural address near Lewisville.
She
is operating under Public Adjuster Lic. No. TL 1345262.
Her
claim is this.
“I
got in ATF agents' faces and FBI agents' faces last Saturday because
they were going to start tearing down homes and I've got to go in and
- you know what I've got to do...”
To
do that, she explains, she first has to get in there to see what was
damaged, and to what extent. She has a background in marine and
industrial fumigation, but lost that license when the Department of
Homeland Security took over scrutinizing all high security
industries. She did not say why.
“You
should have seen us out in the corn fields,” she adds. They caught
us trying to sneak in to get a look at the damage. They turned us
around.”
In
other words, in a disaster area with a crater 90 feet wide and 10
feet deep, if you destroy the evidence, then it can no longer be
treated as either a crime scene, as officials have proclaimed, or a
scene of a horrible accident, which must be appraised. So it goes.
In
an electrifying aside, she looks sidelong, says over the blaring
sounds of a country band playing an outdoor benefit for the homeless
homeowners and injured survivors of the blast, “Did you know there
was an electrical fire out there, earlier in the day?”
At
what time, and according to whom, she is asked.
She
won't say. An electrician with whom she has negotiated a contract
must first give his approval to be named, she said.
“They
had it out in less than an hour.”
The
problem, she says, is that “These people won't sue.”
She
sounds amazed. It seems to be a cultural thing, this reluctance to
enter into litigious controversy among members of the Bohemian and
Moravian-American community of West.
“I
had a whole bunch of women down at the motel. None of them seem aware
that their lives are in jeopardy, that they have no home.” She
shrugs in frustration.
What,
exactly, did the electrician do?
“He
flipped the switches, re-set the breakers, and went back to the shop
to write up an estimate of what it would take to fix the problem.”
Where
did the problem occur?
She
says only that she knows it was at the fertilizer company, in which a
fire burned briefly before a massive explosion heard as far away as
Arlington and felt in Hillsboro blew the building sky high, flattened
nearly a hundred homes.
"You
know, the men in black will probably come take you away if you write
this up and print it?"
Yeah?
Whatever.
She asks, in parting, "Are you a conspiracist?" I answer, "No, ma'am, I'm a newsman. "Are the federal authorities investigating, or are they covering up?" she asks
- The Legendary
NEXT:
The Legendary will conduct a records search in an attempt to locate
mention of the electrical fire so alleged...
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