Dragonfly Eye Series: Odour, Memory and Trauma; a complex claims challenge

November 7, 2024

There are several aspects of trauma during and after a fire; from the terrifying moments of seeing the flames start, to realising that your business operations are grinding to a halt or that you will be out of your home for a lengthy period of time. It is incomprehensible.

With perils such as a flood, it can be easier for the policyholder to reconcile that once dry, damage can be resolved as the structure of the building remains, it’s just needs to transition from wet to dry. With a fire, aesthetically, the damage is far more dramatic and therefore can be harder for policyholders to see the path forward.

Fire can keep policyholders out of the home or business for a long time. Concerns can linger for policyholders, from thermal damage down to odour; even after decontamination and reinstatement.

Psychosomatics – what does it mean?

Psychosomatics is the study of the interconnectedness between biological and psychological processes within the human organism.

We have seen on numerous occasions that even after fully restoring a property, people can often have a psychosomatic response. It is a common occurrence for policyholders to return to the property and still think they can smell smoke from the fire, but why does that happen?

Research shows that smell and memory seem to be closely linked due to the brain’s anatomy, said Harvard’s Venkatesh Murthy, Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

There is evidence that odours elicit emotion and are linked to emotional memory. Responses to odours can include emotions, which can usefully be defined as states elicited by stimuli that are rewards and punishers (Rolls, 2005). 

Odour assessments, combine multiple techniques, air quality, and volatile organic compound (VOC) testing, as well as more manual methods like ‘blind’ nose testing. This is how we quantify a subjective issue.

VOC testing utilises FTIR analysis, which analyses gases present within a property using infrared spectroscopy. By doing this, the concentration for the components of air can be calculated and reported down to parts per million. Any fire-related VOC’s can therefore be detected and reported.

With blind odour testing, an independent tester will assess samples from a property, with no prior knowledge of the incident that has occurred. They then rank the smells on a scale focusing on intensity of smell and hedonic tone, we use this to provide an overall picture of any odours remaining versus smells from trauma-triggered memories.

Empathy during a claim, how can we help?

As mentioned at the beginning, a fire is a very traumatic event. For those in the industry that deal with fires day in day out, we can forget that. We have spoken about the importance of communication during a claim https://www.davis-french-associates.co.uk/the-importance-of-communication-during-a-claim-the-art-of-the-introduction/ before; we need to make sure that the policyholder understands who is there to do what to provide reassurance on processes and clarity of action.

Considering how many claims like this, the industry deals with, DF&A sees so many stakeholders becoming blind to the trauma the policyholders are facing. Approaching policyholders empathetically is an important first step that many in the industry miss. All they want to know is how quickly they can get back to life as they know it and whether the work done to get back to pre-incident condition has gone far enough.

For a policyholder dealing with the trauma that has come from a fire, more often than not they need to know what is going on every step of the way, that is why it is so important to have a competent project manager handling the claim.

DF&A acts as the central pivot for claims, not only do we handle the communication with policyholders but we also act as a central pivot for all of the stakeholders involved as well as any testing that is required to provide the reassurance needed to bring the claim to a conclusion

To learn more about our approach to fires read:

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