Othello mayor recounts loss of home

OTHELLO — In his 34 years selling insurance, Shawn Logan said he’s never had to help a client deal with a major loss.

Until his own house caught on fire earlier this month.

“We lost pretty much everything,” the Othello mayor said.

On July 5, Logan and his family were out watching a movie when he got a phone a call.

“It was from my mom. I texted her back, and then she called again. I then I got a text from a realtor friend saying, ‘dude, better get home, your house is on fire,’” Logan said.

“I wondered if it was a prank, if someone was pranking the mayor,” he said.

But Logan said something inside him told him to go see, so they left for home to find his house engulfed in flames. Even as mayor, the fire department kept him away.

“You just get to watch,” Logan said. “The fire department will not let you go in the house.”

Aside from a few family photos that survived shut up tight in plastic containers in the basement, and the family cat which managed to find a safe place to hide, everything was lost.

“The rest is just stuff, but a lot of it was attached to memories,” he sighed. “Time to make some new memories.”

A fire investigator hired by the 57-year-old Logan’s insurance company — as an insurance salesman, he rather modestly said he is “adequately insured” — concluded the fire most likely started on the roof, and was caused by errant fireworks. Rebuilding will hopefully begin sometime in late September, Logan added.

Logan thanked everyone in Othello for being so very supportive since his house burned down, and had special words of respect for some junior high school students who had been skateboarding nearby who saw the smoke and broke into his house because they wanted to make sure no one was trapped or injured inside.

“They cared,” Logan said. “They didn’t want to see anyone die.”

If Logan was struck by the courage and daring of those junior high schoolers, it’s because he sees what he does as an insurance salesman and as mayor of Othello as how helps and cares for his neighbors and his community.

“This is my business; we take care of people,” Logan said.

After graduating from college, he only reluctantly took up selling life insurance — “I couldn’t do that to people,” he said — but eventually decided that he’d rather work for himself than continuing on as a banker.

“I just wanted to help people plan for their futures. Life has uncertainties. Curveballs are a part of life. So I help people prepare,” he said.

Logan said he had no idea at first just how hard selling insurance was going to be. Frequently, he said he just wanted to quit and find a real job with a regular income.

“Then I’d meet someone, sell them some insurance, and that would give me hope and keep me going,” he said.

And he’s been doing it well enough for long enough now that his company, Basin Insurance, was named the Othello Chamber of Commerce’s business of the month for August.

“We’ve done reasonably well. We pay employees well, are generous to kids and the community, and we seem to have more than enough,” he said.

“A successful business does all of those things,” Logan added.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.