Tldr; circumstances lead to me washing grease and chemical ridden towels at a laundromat, off site of my employer, instead of on site like it should be done
The towels in question spontaneously combusted in my vehicle. Employer’s insurance won’t cover it and employer said they would pay the deductible for my insurance and any increase in premiums.
Location: Montana (my place of employment) Colorado (corporate office handling the situation)
Hey all, first off, thank you for taking the time to read through this and any input given. It’s a wild situation so let’s jump into it.
My place of employment has cleaning rags and aprons that we wash ourselves. There are two types of rags: kitchen rags, used to clean grease among other things, and general cleaning rags, primarily used for sanitizing with things like pine sol. When I started about 7 or so months ago, we washed them on site. About 5 months ago, the washer and dryer we had went kaput. At this time, corporate instructed us to take the laundry to a laundromat while they decide to either buy a new washer/dryer set or contract out to a more local laundry service. A month ago, I got promoted, which made the responsibility of the laundry mine. Mind you, at this point, it is going on 3 months without a solution to the laundry situation.
My first (and only) time taking the laundry off site ended in disaster. Everything went fine and smooth at the laundromat. I washed and dried everything and placed it in my car, the kitchen towels in particular being the last thing to come out of the dryer, so they went straight from the dryer to my car almost immediately. I finished about noon, which is also the end of my shift, so I left the laundry in my car and took it home, because I would have hit overtime if I brought it back to the store. I get home, park in my garage, and go on about my day. Hours later, around 5:30 in the afternoon, my wife gets home, opens the garage, and notices smoke coming from my vehicle and condensation on the inside of my car. (Poor girl assumed at first I ended it with my 2 year old by just parking in the garage and letting it run in the enclosed space.) She bolted into the house and told me what she saw.
I went out and opened the hatchback of my car. There were a total of 4 laundry bags sitting there with only one smoking and a black spot on the outside of the bag, clearly the primary concern. So, I grab the handle that’s intact and drag it to the middle of my driveway, away from everything else, and tip it over. At this point, it combusted entirely, getting swallowed by flames. I bolt to my back yard, grab a hose, and go back out front. In this small window, the flame doubled in size and heat. There was also a random guy that was driving by that had stopped to help. So, we work together to put this fire out.
Once it’s manageable, the random kind Samaritan leaves and I continued to douse the debris to ensure no embers are left. Upon tipping the towels on there side, I could see that only about 15% or so of the rags are white with some color on them from the burning beneath it, meaning only the top few layers of rags were untouched. The rest were literally charcoal, all black and CHIPPING apart instead of normal rags that would fold and move. For the record, all other laundry I had pulled out and laid out to ensure they were cooled off and not on fire.
So, I go to my employer and say “”hey, this is what happened.” My two general managers were as shocked as I’m sure most or all of you are. They reach out to their higher ups to get it resolved. They go THREE WEEKS without any response beyond “wow that’s crazy.” Finally at the end of last week, things start moving with their insurance a full month after the incident.
I had taken my car to a body shop for an estimate and it totalled my car. Every piece of plastic from the steering wheel and radio to the switches for the windows is deformed, like it had paint on it that someone took paint remover to. Its all bubbled and melted. Due to the horrid smell from the 6ish hours of smoldering in my car, it took a week of leaving the windows down outside before it was manageable to sit in and drive. The smell, I was told by at least 3 different businesses, would never come out and all interior needs replaced.
I just found out the corporate insurance (which is believe is assurant) denied the claim. The way the insurance company explained it was that first off, because there wasn’t a report from either the fire department or he police department, they have no way of knowing what actually caused the fire, and secondly because I am employed by [corporate name], they can’t make a claim on me. The CEO of the company emailed me and said it was because it happened at my house that they won’t cover it.
His solution to me was that “they will pay for my insurance deductible and any premium increase due to this issue.” Ya know, provided my insurance will pay out and cover it.
So that’s where I’m at currently. I didn’t do anything with my insurance until I knew it wasn’t covered by my employer and just started the ball rolling on that side of things.
So my question is, do I have a case since I had to do work off site in my personal vehicle, which lead to my vehicle being totalled? In my little peon brain, it would be on the business to reimburse or pay out the value of the car, regardless of their insurance denying the claim. I’m really not sure what to do with this, but to me it’s gross negligence due to the 3 months of no laundry solution before the incident and it STILL not being solved a month after the incident.
TIA, I really appreciate any feedback!