Space heater fire: the insurance claim, step by step

General information, not insurance advice. Your policy and state law control; for injuries or large losses, talk to a professional.

Space heaters are behind a large share of winter house fires — they're the classic December-to-February claim. The good news buried in a bad week: fire is the most solidly covered peril in a homeowners policy. The claims that go wrong usually don't fail on coverage — they fail on paperwork. Here's the path.

First: yes, it's covered — even if the heater was yours

People delay filing because they feel at fault. Ordinary carelessness is precisely what insurance is for; a heater that sat too close to the curtains doesn't void coverage. The dwelling, smoke and soot damage, destroyed belongings, and hotel costs while the home is uninhabitable (ALE) are all in scope. What actually endangers a claim: misstating facts, or guessing at causes. Tell the investigator what you know, not what you assume.

The first 48 hours

• Get the fire report started — the department's record is the spine of the claim; note the incident number.
• Don't clean or discard anything yet — including the heater itself: it's evidence, and if it was defective, the insurer's case against the manufacturer helps you.
• Photograph and video everything — every room, not just the burn area; soot travels through HVAC and «looks fine» rooms often aren't.
• Secure the property — board-up and tarps are mitigation your policy expects and typically reimburses. Keep receipts.
• Start the ALE folder — hotel, meals above normal, mileage: receipts from day one.

The inventory problem — and why it's the whole game

The dwelling gets scoped by adjusters and contractors. Your belongings get paid only as well as you can list and support them — and after a fire, memory is the only record most people have. That's how five-figure contents coverage turns into a two-page list. If you documented your home before (photos, serials, receipts), the contents claim is mechanical. If not: reconstruct room by room from photos on your phone, bank statements, and online order history — slower, but it works. Either way, submit a structured list, not a memory dump.

Then run the claim like a project

Log every call — date, name, what was promised. Save every receipt. Track the deadlines your policy sets (proof-of-loss is a real one). Answer document requests in days, not weeks. Fire claims are long; the organised claimant gets paid faster and more, not because insurers are charitable, but because complete files close cleanly.

ClaimsVault keeps that machine running: calls, receipts, deadlines and documents in one diary, exportable as a single PDF when the adjuster asks where things stand. And the inventory that makes the contents claim easy — that's ItemVault, best used before you ever need it. See how ClaimsVault works →