C & G Electric, Inc.

Electrician found melted wired three inches from the light fixture socket and said it was not caused by the fire we had.
We had a garage fire. The fire was fought from the laundry room inside the house. We had to repaint the whole house because the black on the walls would not wash off. When I asked why I was told by the contractor the smoke is very hot and it gets into the paint pores. We were out of our house for 40 days. When we moved back in our air would not work. Our fuse panel is located in the garage and had to be replaced. C&G did the work so they were called back out. The wiring was wrong. They had to cut a hole in the wall to fix the problem and then just put a plate over the hole to cover it up. It was in the garage so I did not worry about it. They got the air working. We were also having lots of problems with bulbs blowing. We had never had this issue before. then we had the power go out on the right side of our house and come back on all by itself. We contacted C&G to let them know there was a problem. They said they would send someone out the next day. That evening there were three loud pops from the laundry room light fixture and then we lost power again on the right side of the house. I called C&G to get someone to come out immediately. The electrician arrive and tested a few things. He was able to turn the power back on, but could not find the cause of the problem so he decided to leave the power off for the night and send someone back the next morning.

The next morning an electrician and helper showed up. They found that the wires in the laundry room above the light fixture were melted about 3 inches away from the socket and the foil inside the light fixture was damaged by heat. The electrician said this was not caused by the fire, but from us using 100 watt bulbs in the fixture. I pointed out we had lived in the house over 6 years and had 2 other fixtures that were the exact same. We always use 100 watt bulbs. Nothing on the fixture said we could not. We never had any problems before the fire and the other two were in perfect condition. The only difference was they were farther away from the fire. The fixture in the laundry room was located 3 feet from the fire in the garage. I explained to the electrician what I was told about how hot the smoke got and that that was probably what caused the wires to melt and the foil to get damaged. There was even soot under the light fixture when it was removed.

The electrician left. The bill was suppose to be covered by State Farm. However, this electrician wrote out the bill and stated on it "Everything found had nothing to do with fire or panel change out." and mailed the bill to me. I find this very hard to believe he could make a call like this. Maybe if the socket was burned and the wires right on the other side of the socket were burned I could believe it was caused by the light bulb being used. However, the socket was fine and the wires were melted 3 inches away from the socket. Plus, the only light fixture affected is the one that was closest to the fire and took the direct heat of what I was told was very hot smoke. Smoke hot enough that it even got under the paint on my upstair walls due to the heat. Due to his judgement insurance refused to cover it under the fire even though it started right after the fire. I would definitely recommend not to use this company for any insurance claim repairs. I would not trust them.