Mulder family devastated after blaze destroys dream home and insurance claim rejected

An Albany family who lost their dream home and all their possessions in a fire have been left devastated after the RAC rejected their insurance claim. Rodney Mulder was at his Little Grove home alone when he woke up to the sounds of the smoke alarm in the early hours of September 2. “That was probably a blessing as well because the dog was pacing up and down the bed, and by the time I woke up the room was already more than half full of smoke,” he said. “It was already above my head, so I had to crouch down and crawl to the bed.” Crawling to the door, Mr Mulder saw that the fire had engulfed the living room and kitchen and was spreading to his daughter’s bedroom, which was thankfully empty as his wife Jess and their three children were in Perth for a birthday party. With no clear way out, Mr Mulder turned back and smashed a window with a robot vacuum cleaner, throwing the family’s Pomeranian through the shattered glass before climbing through it himself. Mr Mulder ran to his neighbour to call triple-0 and watched as the flames engulfed his home. “I was waiting on the other side of the road when the fireys got here, and I could see from the road just a glow coming from the other side of the house, and I’m just looking at it going ‘no, no, no, no, no’,” he said. “I was coughing a lot as well from smoke inhalation, I couldn’t breathe when I was in there, and it was just too much smoke and then I broke down.” Mr Mulder was taken to hospital and treated for smoke inhalation and shock. A spokesperson for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said the fire was accidental and likely caused by an electrical fault. Mr Mulder and his family never expected something like this to happen to them and are still in a daze as they try to come to terms with the loss of their home and all their belongings, Mr Mulder said. “We’ve lost everything,” he said. “None of my clothes are mine, nothing I’m wearing is mine — I just don’t have anything. “Just everything is gone. “I’ve never experienced this before, and I didn’t realise that the devastation from a fire is so quick.” The family’s pain was made worse when the RAC rejected their insurance claim. The Mulders had changed their insurance to their Little Grove address when they bought the property three months ago. They said they received text messages indicating their RAC payments had bounced but as their bank account had sufficient money in it and their policy was still active on the RAC website, they disregarded them as spam. They also said they did not receive any communication that RAC had cancelled their policy, but when Ms Mulder called them to make a claim after the fire, she was told there was no insurance cover for their current address. The RAC rejected their claim and their subsequent appeal. The Mulders are now unsure whether they will ever see any insurance money from RAC despite being loyal customers for years. “As if it’s not devastating enough to lose your home, throw on top of that, that you’ve lost everything and you’re not getting anything back,” Mr Mulder said. “We’ve got a young family we’re trying to care for — what are we going to do? “We stretched ourselves to get this house because this was something we always dreamed of. “I was like ‘yes, we’ve finally made it, we’ve finally got everything we’ve always dreamed of’ and it’s just been ripped away just like that and there’s nothing we can do.” Ms Mulder said it was difficult to explain the situation to their children Phoebe, 8, Enzo, 2, and Emersyn, 1, but they were grateful to the friends and family who had surrounded them since the blaze. “I don’t know what we’re going to do if we don’t get the insurance money but either way, we have to find some money to demolish the house,” she said. “But this was our project — it had the jarrah floorboards and the high ceilings and that character of the stove with the brickwork and it had that old-timey feel. “And now it’s just gone.” The Mulders said they wanted to give “absolute credit” to the firefighters who got the blaze under control as quickly as possible and thoroughly checked the house to make sure no one else was inside. “They were so professional and so quick — they got here straight away,” Mr Mulder said. Mr Mulder said his “lucky” escape from the blaze was thanks to a working smoke alarm — the melted lump could still be heard beeping in the smouldering ashes a week after the fire. “Check your smoke alarms,” he said. A spokesperson from RAC said they could not comment on individual circumstances. Family and friends have rallied around the Mulders to put a roof over their heads and raise money that will help them rebuild their lives. Donations at gofundme.com/f/rebuild-the-mulder-family-after-their-home-was-destroyed have already raised over $18,000.