After we had what we thought was a small kitchen gas fire, we very quickly learned that home damage associated with a fire is far more extensive than the fire itself. The smoke and water damage, though not as readily visible, was much more devastating. The fire had been put out in less than 10 minutes, but it had taken almost 2 hours while the firemen tried to clear the house of smoke. The end result was that as we discussed the damage with our insurance company, it became clear that we needed to essentially gut the entire inside of the home down to the studs so that necessary rehabilitation work could be used to treat all wood to eliminate the smoke odor. Then, once the treatment was complete, the entire inside of the home needed to be rebuilt, including new wood and tile flooring and new duct work. That task alone was daunting to face, especially since we were forced to...