Nothing prepares you for what the first day after a house fire feels like. You’re standing in a hotel parking lot or a relative’s kitchen, you’ve slept maybe two hours, and your phone is filling up with calls from your insurance company, the fire marshal, and people you didn’t know existed yesterday. Everyone wants something from you. You can’t think straight enough to remember your own address.

This is the post we wish every Twin Cities homeowner had bookmarked before they needed it.

We’ve walked hundreds of families through this. The first 48 hours have a rhythm to them, and once you know what’s coming, the panic drops a notch. Below is exactly what to handle, in the order we’d handle it ourselves, organized so you can work through it without missing the things that matter most.

A note before you start. The single biggest decision in this window is which fire restoration company you hire, because that one choice determines whether you have an advocate on your side of the table for the next six to twelve months. We wrote a separate piece on that here: Should You Use the Fire Restoration Company Your Insurance Adjuster Recommends? Read it before you sign anything.

Now, the rest of the list.

Housing and Finances

The first practical question is where you’re sleeping tonight, tomorrow, and the next several months.

Set up Additional Living Expenses (ALE) with your insurer. Almost every homeowner’s policy includes ALE coverage. It pays for hotels, rentals, meals beyond your normal grocery spend, pet boarding, and anything else you’re paying for because you can’t live in your home. You have to formally activate it. Call your insurance company and say the words “I’d like to open my Additional Living Expenses coverage.” Ask what the daily or monthly cap is and how long it lasts.

Book temporary rental housing. Hotels are fine for a night or two, but a fire rebuild is a long road. Most jobs run four to nine months from loss to move-back. A furnished rental gives your family a kitchen, separate bedrooms, and a place to actually live. Look on Furnished Finder, Airbnb monthly stays, or call a local property manager who handles corporate relocations.

Keep every receipt. All of them. Meals, gas to and from the property, replacement clothing, toiletries, a phone charger because yours is in the house, the deposit on the rental, pet boarding, dry cleaning, everything. Most of it is reimbursable under ALE, but only if you have proof. Start a folder in your email and one on your phone for photos of paper receipts.

Write down your claim information. Claim number, adjuster’s full name, adjuster’s phone, adjuster’s email, deductible amount. Put it all in one note on your phone. You’ll be asked for these by every party involved, sometimes daily, for months.

Notify your mortgage company. They have a financial stake in your home and they need to know there’s been a loss. Insurance proceeds for the rebuild are usually issued in your name and the mortgage company’s name jointly. Calling them now prevents a paperwork mess later.

Contact your auto insurer if vehicles were involved. Auto and home are different policies and different claims. Don’t assume one adjuster handles both.

Communications and Service Changes

Your house is empty now, but the world doesn’t know that yet. Mail still arrives. Packages still get delivered. Subscriptions still bill.

Forward your mail. Go to USPS.com and set up a temporary mail forward to your rental address. It takes ten minutes.

Pause or cancel internet, cable, and any home utilities you can. No reason to pay for service at a damaged house. Most providers will pause your account for a month or two without penalty if you tell them what happened.

Update your address with delivery services. Amazon, UPS, FedEx, any subscription boxes. Otherwise packages pile up at the property and disappear.

Photograph the contents of your refrigerator and freezer before throwing food out. Most policies cover food spoilage as part of the contents claim. Open the doors, take a wide photo and a few close-ups, and keep a rough list of what was in there. Then throw it all out, the smell after a few days will be something you can never unsmell.

Notify your kids’ schools. Give them the temporary address and a note about pickup or drop-off if anything is changing. Teachers should know what’s going on, kids who’ve been through a house fire often need extra patience for a few weeks.

Tell your employer. You may need flexibility for adjuster meetings, contractor walk-throughs, contents pack-outs, and the general fog of the first month. Most employers will work with you, but only if they know.

Personal and Safety Items

The day after a fire, the fire department or your restoration crew will let you back into the house for a controlled walk-through. Do not try to enter alone, structural integrity, air quality, and electrical safety are real concerns.

When you do go in, here’s what to grab:

Prescription medications. All of them, for everyone in the household. If they’re in the kitchen or bathroom and the bottles are intact, take them. If they’re contaminated, take a photo of the label and call your pharmacy.

Eyeglasses, contacts, and medical devices. CPAP machines, hearing aids, blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors, mobility equipment. If you can’t find something or it’s damaged, call the manufacturer or your doctor for a replacement. Insurance contents claims usually cover this.

Call your pharmacy. Ask them to flag your account so refills aren’t interrupted, and update them with a new pickup location if you’ve moved across town.

Firearms. Locate every firearm in the house and store them off-site somewhere safe. A fire-damaged home with broken windows and a board-up is not secure. A relative’s gun safe, a friend’s house, or a paid storage solution all work.

Critical documents. Passports, birth certificates, social security cards, marriage license, deed to the house, vehicle titles, life insurance policies, wills. If your fireproof safe is intact and accessible, get it open. If it’s not safe to retrieve, it can wait, and most documents can be replaced.

One sentimental item per family member if it’s safe to grab it. A photo album. A wedding ring. A kid’s stuffed animal. After 48 hours of crisis logistics, having one familiar thing helps more than people realize.

Track Your Contacts in One Place

Over the next several months you will be asked for the same five pieces of information by every party involved. Adjusters, contractors, mortgage company, fire investigators, public adjusters, attorneys if it goes that direction. Save yourself the search.

Keep a single note or document with:

• Fire report or incident number
• Fire investigator’s name and phone number
• Insurance adjuster’s name, phone, and email
• Insurance claim number
• Your restoration company’s project manager and direct line

We hand every Bedrock customer a printed version of this exact log on day one for this reason. Lost paperwork is one of the top causes of delays on fire claims, and the homeowner is usually the one paying for the delay in extra rental months.

What Comes Next

Once the first 48 hours are behind you, the pace changes. The fire investigation has to wrap, usually a few days to a few weeks. Your restoration company will move through bulk debris removal, then full demo, then mitigation, all gated by formal releases from the fire department, the police, and your insurance carrier. After mitigation comes the rebuild scope negotiation, then the rebuild itself.

A good restoration partner walks you through every release and every milestone, in plain language, so you always know what’s happening and what’s next.

You don’t have to figure this out alone.

If you’ve had a fire in the Twin Cities and you’re standing in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do next, call us. We answer 24/7, we’ll tell you what to handle in the next hour and what can wait until tomorrow, and we’ll be on-site within the hour if you need us.

The Bedrock Team 612-834-1501 service@bedrockrestoration.com