HEARNE, Texas (KRHD) — After a fire at their Hearne home last month, Charles and Sue Fikes discovered their insurance was unknowingly canceled.
- A fire broke out at Charles and Sue Fikes’s home in Hearne on March 20.
- Soon after, they found out their longtime insurance company discontinued their coverage without their knowledge.
- Charles and Sue's daughter, Tracy, and her husband, Frank, told 15 ABC that the insurance company sent the couple only one email and made no further attempts to contact them.
- Tracy and Frank expressed their concern about insurance companies and elderly neighbors.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A fire broke out at Charles and Sue Fikes’s home in Hearne last month.
“Tracy got a call from her sister down the road and indicated that we had about 20 emergency vehicles out in the front and come to find out there had been a fire triggered on the outside of the front patio,” Son-in-law, Frank Gilstrap said.
Volunteer fire departments put out the fire, and no one got hurt, but little did the Fikes know — their problems were just starting.
“The challenge that they faced is the fact that insurance basically said that an underwriter in Texas had canceled all policies in certain areas,” Gilstrap said.
Their longtime insurance company discontinued their coverage without their knowledge.
15ABC asked Charles and Sue’s daughter, Tracy Gilstrap what her reaction was when she found out the insurance was canceled without their knowledge.
“I was just shocked. So angry. This was in 2023, so he hasn't been covered for almost two years."
Charles and Sue's daughter, Tracy, and her husband, Frank, told 15 ABC that the insurance company sent the couple only one email and made no further attempts to contact them.
“Their only response was, you know, ‘we're sorry, we feel for you', but that doesn't go very far when you start looking at the damages that are going in a home like this,” Frank said.
They explained why this lack of communication doesn't work for elderly neighbors.
“So people are saying, well, he should have known. Yeah, he should have, but he didn't because he was 84. He's paying bills as they come in, right?”
“He’s not looking for what hasn't come in.”
But they hope their story helps prevent neighbors from having to go through what they went through.
“We'll make it. He'll make it. And it'll honestly be a beautiful home once it's redone. I just hate, you know, that he had to go through this without the insurance piece,” Tracy said.
