Fire Insurance

It's the peak of what is now a year-round fire season. And throughout Southern California, homeowners in blaze-prone regions are having a hard time finding fire insurance. Tens of thousands of homes are in the region's brushy canyons, with still more under construction.

Addiction counselors tell their clients, "We can't help you until you admit you have a problem. " It's time for American financial institutions to admit they have a gambling problem. JPMorgan Chase & Co. last week announced losses, perhaps greater than $5 billion, from bad derivatives bets. Last year we saw UBS suddenly lose $2.3 billion and the hedge fund MF Global implode from derivatives trading. And let's not forget the 2008 failures of American International Group Inc. and Lehman Bros., which triggered an economic crisis we're still recovering from.

The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan will cost insurance companies billions of dollars. In seismically active California, though, just 12% of homes with fire insurance also have earthquake coverage, according to the California Earthquake Authority. The authority, an independent government agency created by the state Legislature in 1996, is the largest of a handful of insurers that sell earthquake coverage in the Golden State. Here's a look at some key facts about earthquake insurance.

Mitt Romney has been taking lots of heat for his remark on the stump in New Hampshire, "I like being able to fire people. " Pushing back against the criticism that it sounds like Romney takes pleasure from taking over companies and shutting them down for profit--as his former investment firm, Bain Capital, has been accused of doing, his campaign has pointed out that he was talking about health insurance customers having...

The approaching anniversary of last fall's wildfires should serve as a reminder to homeowners to review their insurance policies. Insurers, sensitive to criticism from homeowners who discovered after the fires that their policies did not cover all their fire damage, conducted a recent poll that showed 71% of Californians consider it their personal responsibility to keep their insurance current.

The state study on auto insurance rates is welcome news (Westside section, Oct. 19). Now the Insurance Department needs to take a hard look at liability insurance and fire rates for condos and homes in "brush country." The experience of associations in the Palisades Highlands suggests that something is radically wrong. To have a rate of $7,600 for a condo association with 71 units climb to $75,000 is highway robbery. There is nothing in experience within the Highlands to justify such rates.

With hundreds of Southland homes destroyed, damaged or endangered by fire, here are some questions and answers about fire insurance coverage. For more information, the state Insurance Department maintains a toll-free consumer hot line at (800) 927-HELP. State Farm Insurance, the largest insurer in the United States and in California, has set up a number for claims: (800) SF CLAIM (732-5246).

Fires sweeping across the Southland should serve as a reminder that everything we value is at risk. The moral: Be prepared. Although some things are impossible to replace, for everything else there's insurance. Here's a primer on fire coverage. What's covered under my policy? The first line on your homeowner's policy "declarations" page shows how much coverage you have.

Insurers are often reluctant to issue fire insurance policies to residents of such hard-to-protect areas as inaccessible canyons and brushy hillsides. Sometimes they refuse altogether to write a policy. But homeowners in high-risk areas can obtain fire insurance under the California Fair Plan, a clearinghouse set up by the state in 1968 under which more than 220 insurance companies take on assigned homeowners.

In Van Nuys, firefighter Howard Lewis received a fake, junk mail check for $50,000, announcing that "your home at 7921 Woodley Ave. has recently been verified as eligible for a low interest second trust deed." Great news, except that 7921 Woodley Ave. is the address of L.A. City Fire Station 90. Hardly a hot property. * INTIMIDATING INSTRUCTORS? Learning to drive is a nerve-racking experience for most everyone.

The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan will cost insurance companies billions of dollars. In seismically active California, though, just 12% of homes with fire insurance also have earthquake coverage, according to the California Earthquake Authority. The authority, an independent government agency created by the state Legislature in 1996, is the largest of a handful of insurers that sell earthquake coverage in the Golden State. Here's a look at some key facts about earthquake insurance.

PG&E Corp. told federal regulators Friday that its utility has nearly $1 billion in fire insurance to cover liabilities from the deadly natural gas pipeline blast in San Bruno, but added that its financial condition "could be materially adversely affected" if the insurance coverage falls short or isn't available. Skittish investors fled PG&E's stock, wiping out about $1 billion in the San Francisco company's market value on Friday. PG&E shares plunged $4.03, or 8.4%, to $44.21 in heavy trading.

Los Angeles County officials are advising foothill residents to make sure their homes are protected and insured amid this year's already devastating fire season. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, Los Angeles County firefighters and members of the county's Commission on Insurance gathered Wednesday at Fire Camp No. 2 in La Cañada Flintridge to discuss options for home fire protection and to remind residents to check their insurance policies for fire coverage. "All we want is to make sure the residents of Glendale and Burbank are prepared to rebuild should there be a fire," said Scott Svonkin, the commission's chairman.

As Southern California deals with the reality of recurring, destructive wildfires, a sometimes-controversial cottage industry of private response teams has sprung up to help save the homes of well-to-do clients. Such teams were highly visible in the Tea fire, which raged across one of the nation's costliest neighborhoods, destroying 210 homes and damaging nine others. Peter Jacobson believes one of these teams saved his home.

When Dave Wilder and his wife, Lynn, surveyed the remains of their Running Springs house after it burned to the ground in a wildfire near Lake Arrowhead in October 2007, the thing that struck him most wasn't the devastation, and it wasn't the loss of everything they owned. It was the sound his wife made -- a mournful wail, almost a howl of despair, that echoed through the charred trees on the hillside.

Once again, thousands of Southern Californians reeling from days of destructive wildfires have been forced to exercise the home insurance policies they hoped they would never have to use. That it comes at a time of global financial crisis raises a new set of questions: how healthy are the insurance companies that protect homeowners in a region continually battered by fires? And will the current economic climate result in higher premiums?

A jury Monday awarded $17 million to a Santa Ana Heights couple who contended that their insurance company tried to cheat them out of a fair settlement for their fire-ravaged home. The verdict in Orange County Superior Court, which included $15 million in punitive damages, is one of the largest involving an insurance dispute over a fire loss, according to Santa Ana attorney Wylie A. Aitken, who represented the couple.

A jury awarded $17 million Monday to a Santa Ana Heights couple who contended that their insurance company tried to cheat them out of a fair settlement for their fire-ravaged home. The verdict in Orange County Superior Court, which included $15 million in punitive damages, is one of the largest involving an insurance dispute over a fire loss, according to Santa Ana attorney Wylie A. Aitken, who represented the couple.

It's the peak of what is now a year-round fire season. And throughout Southern California, homeowners in blaze-prone regions are having a hard time finding fire insurance. Tens of thousands of homes are in the region's brushy canyons, with still more under construction.

Stan Newman figures it will cost him close to $400,000 to rebuild his three-bedroom home, which burned to the ground in the fall when a wildfire swept through his neighborhood in the San Diego County community of Rancho Bernardo. But he was stunned when he discovered that his insurer, Amica Mutual Insurance Co., planned to pay him $240,000 for the 1,500-square-foot structure, and no more. That is less than the $304,000 he said he was due, and he is negotiating.