Livermore Falls woman seeks fire damage settlement
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

LIVERMORE FALLS – Roberta Fronczek wants to get on with her life.

Her life is on hold, however, until her insurance company settles the claim on her burned home.

Fronczek said she’s had it. She put a big sign on the front of her house at 88 Main St. and painted it in big letters: “4-months plus homeless. Thanks, Allstate Ins.”

“It’s been so traumatic. It’s unbelievable,” Fronczek said.

Allstate Insurance Co. Corporate Relations Manager Gwen Carter said a decision has not been made on the claim, that it is still under investigation.

Information is still being obtained from the owner, said Carter, who is based in Pennsylvania.

“We want to settle claims as quickly as possible,” Carter said. “It is not our position to keep people displaced out of their homes for an extended period of time.”

Fire in the night

Fronczek said it has been more than four months since her home was gutted by fire.

She had been asleep Feb. 23 when she woke to the sound of breaking glass. She went downstairs and saw a fire between the living room and dining room. Fronczek, a widow, went back upstairs and awoke a friend in another bedroom, and they escaped out the back staircase.

Fronczek went back in to try to save what she could, but the smoke became too much. She was treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

State fire investigators believe a kerosene lamp on the wood stove in the dining room was tipped over and caught the house on fire.

On Monday, the house remained boarded up with yellow plastic tape wrapped around the outside to keep people out.

Fronczek said she received $5,000 to help her after the fire. She had to start out fresh, she said, because she lost almost everything. She was fully insured, she said.

“There is not a light at the end of the tunnel,” Fronczek said.

She said she went to Gov. John Baldacci’s office last week week. His office had helped her get her husband’s veteran’s pension when Baldacci was a congressman, she said.

She had two grandchildren, ages 8 and 11, living with her until the first week of June. But she had to send them back to their parents because she had no place to house them. She had stayed at a friend’s in Canton after the fire, but that arrangement didn’t work out.

Fronczek is now living in Norway with her daughter until she can get a house of her own.

She was asked to submit medical information, including current prescription medicines, financial records, three months’ worth of phone bills, receipts for items such as a dining room set and so forth. A lot of it was destroyed in the fire, and she had to get copies.

Charred remains

She took the yellow tape down Monday to go inside the structure.

A strong smell of smoke was evident in the 15-room home. Charred remains of walls and furniture were in the dining room, living room and what looked like an office where a computer looked melted. Piles of ashes were everywhere in the dark room. The wood stove where the kerosene lamp had been set was still there. A box of Christmas decorations that seemed to have survived the fire were in the middle of the living room.

Fronczek had the yellow tape put on the burned building because it was reported that people were entering it -children, she believes. She said she got permission to take the building down from one insurance person, but another one called later and said if she took it down, it would be at her own peril.

“I’ve got to get this settled,” Fronczek said. “I need to get my life back. All I want to do is get on with my life.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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