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CNN Live At Daybreak
Sad Story of One San Bernardino Family
Aired November 17, 2003 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Believe it or not, some of those wildfires that crippled southern California are still smoldering. But officials say they should be extinguished in the next few days. And while that chapter closes, the rest of the story has yet to be written.
CNN's Miguel Marquez reports on the sad story of one San Bernardino family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARRY BRYANT, HOME DESTROYED BY FIRE: My son's room was in the back. My daughter's room was right next to his room.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fire swept through Barry and Rosa Bryant's San Bernardino home so quickly, they left so fast, they left everything.
ROSA BRYANT, HOME DESTROYED BY FIRE: I'm remembering a lot of things that I had that are gone now, you know, pictures from my kids when they were small, videotapes, a cookie jar that had belonged to my grandmother.
MARQUEZ: An inspector with the Federal Emergency Management Agency quantifies the Bryants' catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the bedroom here that was a total loss.
MARQUEZ: But it wasn't just the Bryant home that fire wiped away. Lawn mowers and tools for a new landscape business, so new it hadn't even been insured, now sits ruined in their front drive.
BARRY BRYANT: It's a $20,000 hit. And I have no way to recover that hit right now.
MARQUEZ: Rose Bryant, who works at a Staples distribution center, has returned to work. She gets emotional when she realizes how her job has become far more than a paycheck.
ROSA BRYANT: I would like to thank everybody at my, you know, all the associates and everybody else who's been helping me. But I needed to go back to work financially.
MARQUEZ: But the Bryants' financial future only gets more complicated. They say shortly before the fire, their mortgage was sold, along with their insurance coverage, to another mortgage company.
ROSA BRYANT: When I spoke to the insurance company, they told me that we're not covered. We have insurance, but we're not covered.
MARQUEZ: Although nothing is final, the Bryants' new mortgage company and their insurer tell CNN one way or another, the Bryants will be covered.
BARRY BRYANT: This was the front door right here.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The California Department of Insurance says about 12,000 claims have already been made, worth about $3.2 billion. And that's just homes. Losses to business haven't even been measured yet.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Bernardino, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 17, 2003 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Believe it or not, some of those wildfires that crippled southern California are still smoldering. But officials say they should be extinguished in the next few days. And while that chapter closes, the rest of the story has yet to be written.
CNN's Miguel Marquez reports on the sad story of one San Bernardino family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARRY BRYANT, HOME DESTROYED BY FIRE: My son's room was in the back. My daughter's room was right next to his room.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fire swept through Barry and Rosa Bryant's San Bernardino home so quickly, they left so fast, they left everything.
ROSA BRYANT, HOME DESTROYED BY FIRE: I'm remembering a lot of things that I had that are gone now, you know, pictures from my kids when they were small, videotapes, a cookie jar that had belonged to my grandmother.
MARQUEZ: An inspector with the Federal Emergency Management Agency quantifies the Bryants' catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the bedroom here that was a total loss.
MARQUEZ: But it wasn't just the Bryant home that fire wiped away. Lawn mowers and tools for a new landscape business, so new it hadn't even been insured, now sits ruined in their front drive.
BARRY BRYANT: It's a $20,000 hit. And I have no way to recover that hit right now.
MARQUEZ: Rose Bryant, who works at a Staples distribution center, has returned to work. She gets emotional when she realizes how her job has become far more than a paycheck.
ROSA BRYANT: I would like to thank everybody at my, you know, all the associates and everybody else who's been helping me. But I needed to go back to work financially.
MARQUEZ: But the Bryants' financial future only gets more complicated. They say shortly before the fire, their mortgage was sold, along with their insurance coverage, to another mortgage company.
ROSA BRYANT: When I spoke to the insurance company, they told me that we're not covered. We have insurance, but we're not covered.
MARQUEZ: Although nothing is final, the Bryants' new mortgage company and their insurer tell CNN one way or another, the Bryants will be covered.
BARRY BRYANT: This was the front door right here.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The California Department of Insurance says about 12,000 claims have already been made, worth about $3.2 billion. And that's just homes. Losses to business haven't even been measured yet.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Bernardino, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
