By Jed Lanyon
A Toolangi Strawberry farmer has won a battle with his insurance company to cover the loss of his fire damaged shed.
Binz Nursery owner Trevor Binz said he was “happy as Larry” upon learning the full costs of damages to his shed would now covered after a faulty smart meter caused a blaze to rip through his property.
Mr Binz had set up a GoFundMe in hopes he could source the remainder of the required funds after his insurer initially offered less than half of what was owed, claiming he was under-insured.
Mr Binz said while he never wished it would come to crowdfunding the rebuilding costs, he feared he would be bankrupt by the next strawberry harvest. Now, he’s glad to be able to refund thousands of dollars back to those who donated to the GoFundMe.
Mr Binz shared how he helped fight off the fire that tore through his shed, destroying his coolrooms over five months ago.
“It happened in the middle of the night,” he said.
“We had just started our harvest and had the shed and the coolrooms going. Apparently the smart meter decided to spontaneously combust and light the back of the shed on fire.
“I was awoken to the sound of a gas bottle exploding and it went flying. I just got as many hoses together as I could to stop it spreading to the other shed until the CFA got there.”
He said within 30 minutes, 14 fire trucks were on scene helping extinguish the fire.
In the aftermath, Mr Binz said he was shocked when he was told he would receive less than half of the $985,000 of the total cost of the rebuild after his property was re-valued at three times its original amount.
“I didn’t realise I was living on such a goldmine,” he joked.
“I’m a third generation grower. My grandpa started it all. Then dad ran it his whole life,” Mr Binz said.
“Dad was devastated when the shed burnt down. He built it in the nineties and poured a lot of money into it and spent years paying it off. So nobody wanted to see that.”
Binz Nursery supplies about 5-6 million plants each year, including strawberry runners to other growers.
*At Mr Binz’s request the Mail has agreed not to name the insurance company involved.
