A fire claim is decided by what you do before the site is cleared.
Once people are safe, almost everything that decides a fire claim happens in the next three days: what is preserved, and what can be evidenced.
In orderMake it safe, then stop clearing up; tell the insurer today; start the official records; photograph before anything moves; assemble what proves the value; meet the surveyor with your papers ready; keep salvage until you are told in writing; record the business interruption separately.
- Make it safe, then stop clearing upOnce people are safe and the fire is out, stop. The instinct to clean is the most expensive instinct in a fire claim. Nothing goes to the scrap dealer, nothing is swept, nothing is repaired.Immediately
- Tell the insurer todayAn email with the policy number, the date and time, the premises and one line on what happened. It does not need to be complete. It needs to be today.Same day
- Start the official recordsThe fire brigade report, and the police report where there is any question of cause. Both take time to obtain and every insurer will ask for them, so request them before you are asked.Day 1
- Photograph before anything movesWide shots of the whole area first, then close shots of individual damaged items, then the parts that survived. Photograph stock as it lies. Walk the site on video, narrating what each area held.Before the survey
- Assemble what proves the valueStock statements, purchase invoices, the last stock declaration given to your bank, the fixed asset register, production records, GST returns. A fire claim is won or lost on whether the value at risk can be evidenced.Days 1 to 3
- Meet the surveyor with your papers readyTheir report largely decides the claim and it is written from what they are shown on the day. Walk the site with them. Do not leave them to form a view alone and correct it later.At survey
- Keep salvage until you are told in writingDamaged stock and machinery still belong to the claim. Do not sell, scrap or dispose of salvage without the insurer's written agreement on what happens to the proceeds.Until settled
- Record the business interruption separatelyIf you carry it, loss of profit is a distinct claim with its own evidence. Start the record of lost production and lost orders on day one; it cannot be reconstructed convincingly later.From day 1
Burglary Claim
Theft from business premises, a godown, a site office or a warehouse.
Machinery Breakdown Claim
A machine has failed electrically or mechanically and stopped production.
Where it comes up most: Textile and Apparel · Engineering and Manufacturing · Construction · Hotels and Hospitality. The letter that starts it: Intimation of loss.
Take this with you as a text file. It opens with no signal, prints on one page, and forwards to whoever is actually standing at the loss.
Still standing in it? Ring the desk before you clear anything.
Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.
Fire Claim: The First 72 Hours, Claims Desk by RFS, https://claimsdesk.in/procedures/fire. Checked 13 September 2026.
Quote it, link to it, or reproduce it with the address attached. If you are writing about a claim and need the rule behind a line here, the desk will point you at the source: press and citation.
- Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
- Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
- Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.