State Farm tops 700 claims from wildfires

Aug. 14--BLOOMINGTON -- State Farm has taken hundreds of insurance claims related to the latest round of California wildfires, but a lot more work is still to come.

"As of this morning, State Farm had approximately 790 homeowner claims from the Carr Fire in Redding, Calif.," said spokesman Jim Camoriano on Monday. "We don't have vehicle claim numbers to report at this time."

Camoriano said he can't yet provide dollar figures as blazes continue in the Golden State due to drought, warmer weather attributed to climate change and home construction deeper into forests, the Associated Press reported.

The two-week-old Carr Fire killed eight people and burned more than 1,000 homes but was more than 50 percent contained on Saturday. It's one of nearly 20 blazes burning across California; more than 20,000 people were reportedly told to evacuate at one point.

That includes the largest wildfire ever recorded in California -- the Mendocino Complex -- burning north of Sacramento that destroyed more than 100 homes. It was nearly 70 percent contained. On Sunday, it had covered 525 square miles.

The Holy Fire -- named for Holy Jim Canyon, where it began Aug. 6 -- was 41 percent contained Sunday afternoon after burning across 35.5 square miles of dry timber and brush, said Lynne Tolmachoff of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"There aren't many homes affected in the Holy Fire," said Camoriano of State Farm's reaction to the blaze. "We have not called a large-scale response to that specific area, compared to the Carr Fire, for example."

Camoriano said the fires are a good reminder to people everywhere to make a home inventory, back up their information, create and rehearse an evacuation plan, create an evacuation package and talk to an agent about coverage.

California was also hit hard by wildfires last year in a rare winter fire outbreak, fed by fierce winds.

State Farm spokeswoman Missy Dundov said in February that State Farm had paid about $98.4 million for 2,960 homeowner claims received and about $2 million of 380 auto claims received for last fall's Southern California fires.

For October's Northern California fires, State Farm had paid about $1.2 billion for 4,540 homeowner claims received and about $20.7 million for 1,340 auto claims received, according to Dundov.

If treated as a single disaster, the combined fires in October and December "represent one of the most damaging natural catastrophes in California history," said state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in February.

They damaged or destroyed 32,000 homes, 4,300 businesses and more than 8,200 vehicles, boats and other equipment, said Jones. Total insurance claims for all insurance companies surpassed $11.8 billion.

Contact Derek Beigh at (309) 820-3234. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_beigh

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