Page 3 - aruba-today-20190509

A3
U.S. NEWS Thursday 9 May 2019

Insurance claims from deadly California wildfires top $12B

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE As- is being dropped, Lara said would create a fund for
sociated Press earlier this year. catastrophic wildfires that
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) "Wildfire has long been part utilities, insurers and under-
— Insurance claims have of California's landscape insured people could tap
topped $12 billion for the and insurers understand to help pay for damages.
November wildfires in Cali- that California faces ma- Legal and financial experts
fornia, making them the jor wildfire risk," said Nicole hired by Gov. Gavin New-
most expensive in state his- Mahrt-Ganley of the Ameri- som suggested a fund as
tory. can Property Casualty In- big as $40 billion to help
The figure released surance Association, which cover costs. However, if
Wednesday by Insurance represents about 60 per- wildfire losses continue to
Commissioner Ricardo Lara cent of the nation's proper- be as large in future years as
covers the fire that large- ty casualty insurance mar- they were in 2017 and 2018,
ly destroyed the town of ket. "Insurers are still operat- a $40 billion fund would not In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, a vehicle rests in front of a home
Paradise and two South- ing in this competitive and be large enough, said Na- leveled by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif.
ern California blazes. It's stable insurance market." than Pollak, a consultant Associated Press
up about $600 million from She said in her emailed with Filsinger Energy Part-
data released in January. statement that California ners. Newsom has not en- but suggested lawmakers changing the liability stan-
Most of the damages re- homeowners should take dorsed any particular ideas consider creating a fund or dard for utilities.q
late to the Paradise fire, steps to mitigate fire dam-
which killed 85 people and age such as updating their
destroyed nearly 19,000 coverage and creating
buildings. defensible space around
"While last year's tragic their homes.
wildfires turned thousands When insurers decline to
of people's lives upside renew policies, state law
down, insurance is helping requires them to notify cus-
to rebuild and recover," tomers about other options.
Lara said in a news release The state has a pooled in-
during Wildfire Prepared- surance plan of last result
ness Week. known as the "FAIR plan."
California experienced California lawmakers are
some of its deadliest and grappling this year with
most destructive wildfires in ways to address the cost
its history in 2017 and 2018. and destruction of wildfires.
A series of sweeping fires Pacific Gas & Electric
in late 2017 had been the Corp., the state's largest
most expensive, with claims utility, filed for bankruptcy
topping $11.8 billion. in January, saying it could
The increasing destruction not afford potentially tens
is making it harder and of billions of dollars in liabil-
more costly for people to ity costs related to fires.
obtain homeowners insur- State law makes utilities
ance. financially liable for dam-
The insurance department ages from wildfires caused
has started collecting data by their equipment, even
on policy non-renewals to if they aren't found to be
better assess patterns and negligent.
locations where coverage One legislative proposal