It's any homeowner's nightmare. You drive down the street and realize the smoke billowing into the air is coming from your home.

Such was the case for Margaret Churchill of Townsend, Delaware, who encountered this situation just days before Christmas. "We were planning on decorating the tree that afternoon," said Margaret, a mother of four, "and the presents were on the couch, all wrapped and ready."

Margaret called Liberty Mutual's toll-free claims number, which connected her with Claims Adjuster Lisa Mild (on left in photo), a 17-year veteran. "Lisa arrived in no time, gave me a check to cover immediate expenses, and started talking me through everything."

"Everything" included determining the cause of the fire (a faulty lamp), and hiring contractors to clean up the debris and repair the heavily smoke-damaged home. "Liberty even hired a company to clean the presents using an ozone chemical cleaning process," Margaret said, "so we were able to salvage a Merry Christmas after all."