California’s 2017 wildfire claims climb to nearly $12 billion

Jan. 31--More than 13,300 insurance claims totaling roughly $1.8 billion have been filed for the Thomas, Rye, Skirball and Lilac fires, according to the state Department of Insurance.

The figures are the first official tallies since the fires tore through Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego counties in December.

When combined with the October fires in Northern California, there have been 45,000 insurance claims filed totaling $11.79 billion, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said during a Wednesday morning news conference.

"These are staggering and unprecedented losses, but these are more than just large numbers," Jones said. "Behind these numbers lies a tragic loss of life, loss of homes, loss of personal possessions and upending of whole communities. Whole neighborhoods burned to the ground."

The figures do not include claims from the Montecito mud and debris flows that damaged more than 100 homes and killed at least 21 people.

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The people affected in Montecito find themselves in a different situation when it comes to insurance. A typical homeowner's insurance policy covers fires but often explicitly excludes damage from flooding. That insurance must be bought separately.

But Jones said the state on Monday put insurers on formal notice that the fire was the "efficient proximate cause" of the slides and as such, should be covered. The fire stripped vegetation that, under typical circumstances, would have absorbed the rain that instead caused the bare landscape to fall into the community below.

It's not clear how binding a decision that is; Jones said it was his expectation that insurers would receive the claims and take appropriate steps to assess them.

Of the claims filed after the December wildfires, 11,167 were on residential properties. Of those, 773 were for total home loss, Jones said.

More than 520 of those were in Ventura, which had the most homes lost in the Thomas Fire.

An additional 1,063 claims were for commercial property, with 45 of those being for total loss and 837 for personal and commercial vehicles, Jones said.

Jones also provided updated figures on the Northern California fires in October. For those, there were 18,465 residential claims for roughly $8.4 billion in losses, 2,586 claims for commercial property and 5,008 for personal and commercial vehicles.

Asked how the wildfires compared to other disasters, Jones noted the Northridge Earthquake led to around $20 billion in insured loss.

"If you treat these October and December fires as a combined incident these claimed insured losses represent one of the most damaging natural catastrophes in California history," he said.

Jones urged anyone impacted by the fire to reach out, including if a dispute arises between the policyholder and the insurer.

"A big part of our job is to help with disputes," he said.

The department helped consumers get between $50 and $60 million when they intervened in disagreements, Jones said.

"The road to recovery will be a long one, but we are here to help," he said.

About 60 percent of U.S. homes are underinsured by 20 percent, according to CoreLogic, an Irvine-based company that provides data to most major home insurers. People across the state have since the fires been learning they're significantly underinsured and will fall well shy of having enough to build a comparable dwelling.

On Saturday, the department is hosting two workshops focused on insurance claims. One will be held from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. at Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road in Ventura. Another will take place from 4-6 p.m. at Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive. Call 800-927-4357 to make an appointment.

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