00:00:04 [Speaker 1] The canyon is literally a fire on both sides. 00:00:08 [Speaker 2] I thought So I've got new evacuations and tell you about any Eaton fire where Nicole Comstock was the city. 00:00:12 [Speaker 3] Devastating wildfires that have that continue to ravage Los Angeles, they could end up being the most costly in US history. 00:00:19 [Speaker 1] Assured losses of about four, higher end over 10, maybe, you know, could be 13, could be even higher, really. 00:00:27 [Speaker 4] By all reports, this was gonna be one of the largest natural disasters or the most expensive in US history. 00:00:34 [Speaker 4] When am I gonna get an adjuster that I can talk to? 00:00:38 [Speaker 2] It it was pretty bad. 00:00:39 [Speaker 2] He did sort of, like, the bare minimum, and he he wore no protective gear. 00:00:44 [Speaker 2] He's like, whatever. 00:00:45 [Speaker 5] Our assigned adjuster has never, actually set foot in our house. 00:00:51 [Speaker 5] She came in for art at one point. 00:00:54 [Speaker 6] At first, those whose homes were still standing following the Eaton and Palisades fires considered themselves lucky. 00:01:01 [Speaker 6] But as they soon found out, many homes were coated in ash and smoke. 00:01:06 [Speaker 6] For some, the damage was invisible, but nonetheless hazardous. 00:01:10 [Speaker 6] And what they thought would be a relatively straightforward road to getting back into their homes has turned into anything but. 00:01:17 [Speaker 6] As of July 2025, of 186 standing homes that have been tested so far following the Eaton Fire, all of them showed elevated levels that required professional remediation. 00:01:30 [Speaker 6] That's according to data provided by Eaton Fire Residents United, a volunteer led coalition of residents. 00:01:37 [Speaker 6] Another resident led organization, the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, submitted hundreds of testimonials to the insurance commissioner describing State Farm's failure to meet its claims obligations to policyholders after the fires. 00:01:50 [Speaker 6] Of the 51 smoke damage testimonials included, every single one sites with the company refusing or underpaying claims for testing and remediation. 00:02:00 [Speaker 6] What has emerged is a troubling portrait of affected policyholders. 00:02:04 [Speaker 6] Their homes are contaminated with toxins, and they are not receiving the claims payments they are owed. 00:02:10 [Speaker 5] Reality is that that's what what the battle is. 00:02:14 [Speaker 5] It's like we are left holding them back. 00:02:16 [Speaker 2] I I think we're just spinning our wheels. 00:02:18 [Speaker 1] It was very, very painful. 00:02:19 [Speaker 1] And if you're not organized, I don't think you're gonna get as much money back out of them. 00:02:24 [Speaker 4] State Farm seems to be really sort of the worst. 00:02:27 [Speaker 6] Getting insurance companies to pay for wildfire damage has become a major problem for policyholders. 00:02:33 [Speaker 6] Last decade, almost 40% of claims related to California wildfires were underpaid, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. 00:02:42 [Speaker 6] Now minimizing or flat out ignoring smoke damage has become the way insurance companies are limiting their losses. 00:02:48 [Speaker 6] Insurers often claim smoke can't reach enclosed spaces, like closets or drawers, and seemingly no nonsense test to detect toxins like asbestos go ignored. 00:03:00 [Speaker 6] This podcast series is about home insurance industry tactics to deny consumers the rights they were promised and provide a road map for how to claw back. 00:03:09 [Speaker 6] This is relevant to Californians as well as anyone. 00:03:12 [Speaker 6] And in this episode, we'll present a tip guide for policyholders on getting smoke damage claims paid from those who know best, folks who have gone through it. 00:03:21 [Speaker 6] You'll be hearing from fire survivors who have fought and won, public adjusters who seek to get claims paid on behalf of policyholders, attorneys who litigate in court against insurance companies, and experts in toxins and testing. 00:03:35 [Speaker 6] And in episodes two and three, we'll uncloak the shadow land of insurance industry subcontractor here to be independent. 00:03:42 [Speaker 6] I'm Justin Klosko. 00:03:44 [Speaker 6] This is Smoke and Mirrors, a new investigative podcast series from Consumer Watchdog, and this is episode one, ten tips to get smoke damage claims paid. 00:03:56 [Speaker 6] Tip one, know your policy. 00:04:01 [Speaker 6] So damage to your home is very stressful, and even knowing who insures you and the details of the policy can be annoying to understand. 00:04:10 [Speaker 6] So if you need help finding your policy, property owners in a declared disaster area can get help through the California Department of Insurance, which offers a free online insurance policy locator. 00:04:21 [Speaker 6] The department will forward your information to insurance companies licensed in California who will then see if the property is insured, and then they'll contact you directly about the policy. 00:04:35 [Speaker 6] Tip two. 00:04:36 [Speaker 6] Don't rush to clean up. 00:04:38 [Speaker 6] Test for toxins first. 00:04:43 [Speaker 6] After the fire tore through the foothills of Angeles National Forest, Wendy Davis' Sierra Madre home was still standing. 00:04:50 [Speaker 6] But inside, it rained soot in ash. 00:04:53 [Speaker 4] The winds were sixty, seventy up to a 100 miles an hour. 00:04:56 [Speaker 4] The when we left, the fire was, on the ridge above us, two and a half blocks away. 00:05:04 [Speaker 4] There was significant smoke in our house, a significant smoke in the area, and a lot of ash and soot in in our home. 00:05:14 [Speaker 6] So state farm her home. 00:05:15 [Speaker 6] But after being volleyed between different insurance adjusters who she could never seem to reach, Davis took matters into her own hands, and she hired an industrial hygienist to test for toxins. 00:05:26 [Speaker 6] It was a good thing she did. 00:05:27 [Speaker 6] The results showed her home contained asbestos, but Davis only learned of the asbestos later. 00:05:32 [Speaker 6] Before she got her test results, State Farm sent out Servpro, a contractor often hired by the insurer to assess damages of the home. 00:05:40 [Speaker 6] However, it did not test for asbestos. 00:05:43 [Speaker 6] In fact, it did no testing whatsoever. 00:05:46 [Speaker 4] And he came in to investigate. 00:05:47 [Speaker 4] He didn't inspect anything. 00:05:48 [Speaker 4] The testing company added in the asbestos, and thank God they did. 00:05:56 [Speaker 4] I wouldn't have known. 00:05:57 [Speaker 6] State Farm okayed the SERVPRO report and cut Davis a check for $26,000, way under the quotes Davis received from other remediation companies. 00:06:06 [Speaker 6] The more comprehensive and no nonsense private quotes she received were $72,000 for structural remediation, that's just for the house, and $82,000 for tents restoration, the stuff in her house. 00:06:20 [Speaker 6] All of Davis' contents were taken out of the house and cleaned at a facility, her clothes, dishes, furniture, rugs, etcetera. 00:06:27 [Speaker 6] And cleaning her actual home consisted of opening drawers and cleaning them with a HEPA vacuum. 00:06:34 [Speaker 6] That was not part of Servpro's estimate. 00:06:36 [Speaker 6] Servpro would have wiped down the outside of the drawer, but the inside of the drawer would have been untouched and uncleaned. 00:06:42 [Speaker 4] If I had just taken that $26,000 check and called it a day, I I'd probably be back in my house, but I would know of the the dangers that are still in that house. 00:06:53 [Speaker 6] So test. 00:06:54 [Speaker 6] Bottom line, test. 00:06:56 [Speaker 6] That's what Dawn Bolstad Johnson says. 00:06:59 [Speaker 6] She's a certified industrial hygienist with over twenty five years experience who's helped many families in the wake of the LA fires. 00:07:06 [Speaker 6] Bolstead Johnson recommends testing for toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, lead, cobalt, lithium, arsenic, as well as cyanide and chloride ions. 00:07:15 [Speaker 6] Exposure to these toxins can lead to cancer and neurological issues. 00:07:19 [Speaker 7] We're testing for total cyanide in wallboard and yoga mats and baby car seats and mattresses, bolster pillows, and we're finding it everywhere. 00:07:28 [Speaker 7] You can't clean away what is absorbed into drywall and and couches and mattresses and those kinds of things. 00:07:36 [Speaker 7] They all become a reservoir. 00:07:37 [Speaker 6] Kelsey Zimat, whose Altadena home suffered severe smoke damage, also warned that her insurance provider, State Farm, didn't bother establishing first what toxins were inside her home via testing. 00:07:49 [Speaker 6] State Farm sent Zemet a $39,000 to repair damages, much lower than their independent quotes. 00:07:56 [Speaker 6] Meanwhile, testing revealed the full picture. 00:07:59 [Speaker 5] Very high levels of lead, many rooms. 00:08:01 [Speaker 5] We also have noticeable arsenic and chromium showing up. 00:08:05 [Speaker 6] There was no asbestos, but the levels of lead were much higher than the EPA limit for exposure, Zimedt told me. 00:08:12 [Speaker 6] Pacific Palisades resident Tim McCune also advised to test. 00:08:16 [Speaker 6] His California Fair Plan policy, which was ostensibly created to give people like him in fire prone areas insurance coverage, didn't pay for it, instead lowballing him with a $36,000 payout. 00:08:27 [Speaker 6] He said an insurance field adjuster came to his home, but didn't intend on checking the attic, a spot where soot and ash is usually concentrated. 00:08:35 [Speaker 2] He wasn't there for long, and he didn't seem to care too much. 00:08:38 [Speaker 2] Like, for instance, I said, hey, how about the attic? 00:08:40 [Speaker 2] You wanna check out the attic? 00:08:41 [Speaker 2] He's like, no. 00:08:43 [Speaker 2] So I was just like, okay. 00:08:44 [Speaker 2] Well, I got a I got a ladder out for the environmental testers to go up there. 00:08:48 [Speaker 2] And he's like, well, since you have the ladder, he's like, I'll poke my head up there. 00:08:51 [Speaker 2] But he, like, he didn't take any pictures of the attic. 00:08:54 [Speaker 2] He didn't actually go into the attic. 00:08:56 [Speaker 2] Like, that's where the the bulk of the damage was just in terms of the ash. 00:08:59 [Speaker 2] Like, the I I got, like, pictures where you can see, like, an inch thick of, ash up on the insulation up in the attic, so it was pretty bad. 00:09:09 [Speaker 2] So, yeah, I mean, you know, he he did sort of, like, the bare minimum, and he he wore no protective gear. 00:09:15 [Speaker 2] He's like, whatever. 00:09:17 [Speaker 6] The fair plan paid to pressure wash his walls, install some air scrubbers, and do a deodorization process. 00:09:23 [Speaker 6] But to test and clean everything properly in McCune's home was going to cost about a 170 k, and that didn't include replacing contents, according to McCune. 00:09:35 [Speaker 6] His private quote recommended deep cleaning of TRUUM to remove ash and smoke residue, using vacuuming and manual wiping. 00:09:42 [Speaker 6] Deodorizers such as sprays and ozone generators were recommended to eliminate lingering smoke, and contaminated carpet and insulation would be removed. 00:09:51 [Speaker 6] The HVAC system also had to be cleaned. 00:09:54 [Speaker 6] Again, industrial hygienist Dawn Balsett Johnson. 00:09:58 [Speaker 7] The science is all of a sudden not being followed anymore. 00:10:05 [Speaker 6] Tip three, know what tests miss. 00:10:11 [Speaker 6] Insurance approved tests are often inadequate for post fire smoke contamination. 00:10:17 [Speaker 6] Bolset Johnson says there's a lot that the insurance companies who do test end up missing, such as all the toxic residue left by synthetic and electronic hardware that burns in a home, like lithium batteries. 00:10:30 [Speaker 7] That's showing up in almost every single home because of all the lithium batteries that we have. 00:10:35 [Speaker 7] And so there's been no fire like this that has included this amount of synthetic materials, this amount amount of electronics. 00:10:45 [Speaker 7] So it's it's really unprecedented. 00:10:47 [Speaker 6] To make sure testing is done thoroughly, homeowners should hire a qualified industrial hygienist experienced in post fire indoor testing and not just someone using basic lab packages. 00:10:57 [Speaker 6] Testing should follow scientific standards like those in the National Academies report on fire chemistry. 00:11:04 [Speaker 6] Essential tests include fine airborne particle counts, toxic VOCs, that's volatile organic compounds like aldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, total heavy metal content, and chlorine ion testing for electronics damage. 00:11:20 [Speaker 6] Testing must also pay for often overlooked areas like attics, wall cavities, HVAC systems, and window frames. 00:11:28 [Speaker 7] If we're just sampling for the same thing that we sampled for in smokey to bear fires or forest fires, we're missing the whole cloud of what was in this this very toxic fire because nowhere has there been a model follow for anybody to follow. 00:11:45 [Speaker 7] So it's a wild, wild west. 00:11:50 [Speaker 6] Tip four, walk the loss with the insurance adjuster. 00:11:57 [Speaker 6] Denise Zee is a public adjuster and president of the Pacific Coast Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. 00:12:04 [Speaker 6] As a public adjuster, she handles claims with insurance companies on behalf of policyholders. 00:12:09 [Speaker 6] Her move? 00:12:11 [Speaker 3] I insist on walking every loss. 00:12:13 [Speaker 6] That means walk alongside the insurance adjust, check the home for damage. 00:12:16 [Speaker 6] You can say she just helicopters them. 00:12:19 [Speaker 3] Literally, the IAs were telling me, you know, I'm not supposed to go in the attic. 00:12:22 [Speaker 3] I'm like, you're going into the attic. 00:12:23 [Speaker 3] You know, like, if I'm gonna go into the attic, you're going to the attic, and we're gonna get photos. 00:12:28 [Speaker 6] Zee often points out damage that adjusters miss or avoid and often reframes cleaning as damage in her estimates. 00:12:34 [Speaker 6] For example, she will write up repainting and sealing a wall rather than an insurance adjuster offering to simply clean it. 00:12:41 [Speaker 6] She remembers one Fair Plan adjuster who did not take photos of direct burns. 00:12:45 [Speaker 3] You can tell already, like, to not, you know, pay everything out. 00:12:49 [Speaker 3] There was there was a burn along the house. 00:12:51 [Speaker 3] It was very clear that all the irrigation lines were melted in the area, and she kinda just walked past it. 00:12:57 [Speaker 6] But Zee pointed out that the damage should be recorded as a plumbing estimate. 00:13:01 [Speaker 3] She actually turned to me and said, you know what? 00:13:03 [Speaker 3] You don't be need to be so aggressive and so mean. 00:13:06 [Speaker 2] Right. 00:13:07 [Speaker 3] And my insured looked at me because I've kinda known in the industry that I'm not that person. 00:13:13 [Speaker 6] Z has developed relationships with adjusters to use to consumers benefit. 00:13:17 [Speaker 6] But sometimes, it's like 00:13:18 [Speaker 3] Getting the right adjuster is almost seems to be the key. 00:13:24 [Speaker 6] Tip five, smoke damage is fire damage. 00:13:32 [Speaker 6] So for over a hundred years, insurance companies treated both fire and smoke damage as inseparable and a covered loss. 00:13:39 [Speaker 8] Fair play just said we're not doing that anymore. 00:13:42 [Speaker 6] That's Dylan Schaeffer, an attorney who has sued insurance companies for over twenty five years. 00:13:47 [Speaker 6] Schaeffer stresses that there is no smoke damage with alphabeche. 00:13:50 [Speaker 6] He advises policyholders to stop discussing property damage only in terms of the word smoke. 00:13:56 [Speaker 6] Instead, he frames smoke damages involving thermal damage from heat and chemical contamination damage from fuel. 00:14:03 [Speaker 8] The truth is that what you're really talking about is not smoke. 00:14:05 [Speaker 8] You're talking about what's left here after smoke is gone, and that's chemicals and contamination. 00:14:09 [Speaker 6] Schaeffer stresses that chemical contamination is real damage that requires professional cleaning, decontamination, or replacement. 00:14:18 [Speaker 6] It's not cosmetic. 00:14:19 [Speaker 8] The reason I distinguish between chemicals and contamination is because chemicals impact building components, the functionality of building components. 00:14:26 [Speaker 8] So you have, you know, a a very highly acidic combustion byproducts. 00:14:31 [Speaker 8] They get into windows and and roof you know, under underlayment and electronic systems, and they break them or they deteriorate them. 00:14:38 [Speaker 8] Just fuel. 00:14:39 [Speaker 8] So forget smoke. 00:14:41 [Speaker 6] This summer, a judge in one of Schaeffer's smoke damage cases ruled that the California fare plan was illegally lowballing policyholders because it was offering less than what was required by the law, which covers, quote, all losses by fire without making a distinction for smoke for smoke damage. 00:14:57 [Speaker 8] The the reason this ruling is so important is because it kinda draws the line in the sand as it relates to those practices. 00:15:01 [Speaker 8] As it relates to Fair Plan, it unspent fifteen years of claims practices and and just says, you're it's all wrong. 00:15:07 [Speaker 8] It's all illegal. 00:15:08 [Speaker 8] And they've known this for years. 00:15:09 [Speaker 8] They just it's just incredibly profitable. 00:15:11 [Speaker 6] But it might still be a while before policyholders see relief as the case is expected to go to trial to decide what kind of remedy there will be. 00:15:22 [Speaker 6] Tip six, push back on cosmetic fixes. 00:15:27 [Speaker 6] Zomet, the Altadena resident whose home suffered severe smoke damage, is adamant that fire victims shouldn't let insurers like State Farm take control of cleaning damaged homes. 00:15:37 [Speaker 6] For one, without established testing, it's unknown the extent of damage a home has suffered. 00:15:44 [Speaker 6] Zemet's home test turned up arsenic, lead, and chromium, but State Farm only paid for a HEPA filter and a wipe down. 00:15:52 [Speaker 6] Meanwhile, the remediation quote Zemet received said her floorboards had to be refinished and resealed due to lead and ash between them. 00:15:59 [Speaker 6] Her drywall likely needed replacing, and the entire house required repainting with a special paint to seal the lead. 00:16:05 [Speaker 5] But what your pro and ring will not make your house safe. 00:16:11 [Speaker 6] Volstead Johnson, the industrial hygienist. 00:16:14 [Speaker 7] You can't clean away what is absorbed into drywall and and couches and mattresses and those kinds of things. 00:16:22 [Speaker 7] They all become a reservoir. 00:16:24 [Speaker 6] Doctor Gina Solomon, who studies environmental health issues, cautions against some of the cleaning protocols dispatched by insurance policies, such as deodorizers and ozone generators. 00:16:34 [Speaker 6] Ozone generators designed to remove hazardous particles can react to VOCs to create new toxins. 00:16:40 [Speaker 9] You're basically creating a whole set of chemical reactions that are poorly understood inside the home. 00:16:48 [Speaker 6] She compares deodorizers, which mask toxic odors to 00:16:52 [Speaker 9] Putting fig leaf over the problem here, and it's not addressing the underlying problems. 00:17:01 [Speaker 6] Tip seven, document everything. 00:17:05 [Speaker 6] Make a record. 00:17:07 [Speaker 6] Again, Kelsey Zemet. 00:17:09 [Speaker 5] You have to document, document, document every email, every phone call because they are not documenting it. 00:17:16 [Speaker 6] That's especially important because policyholders have reported being assigned upwards of four or five different adjusters disrupting the claims process. 00:17:24 [Speaker 6] Nicole Anderson, who lost her Santa Cruz home due to the complex fire in 2020, held on to her receipts, allowing her to recover about 70% of her personal property, but she had to list around 3,000 items, a process that took three years. 00:17:38 [Speaker 6] She tried to negotiate with State Farm to get a percentage of the property back. 00:17:42 [Speaker 1] State Farm refused. 00:17:43 [Speaker 6] At the end of the day, the claims process is like a full time job that doesn't really pay. 00:17:48 [Speaker 6] Try and maintain digitized receipts whenever possible. 00:17:56 [Speaker 6] Tip eight, persistence pays. 00:18:02 [Speaker 6] Remember Wendy Davis and her story about State Farm lowballing her? 00:18:06 [Speaker 6] Well, playing the long game worked out for her in the end. 00:18:09 [Speaker 6] State Farm quoted her $44,000 based on an estimate that did not account for asbestos. 00:18:15 [Speaker 6] After subtracting her advance and deductible, she was paid out merely $26,000. 00:18:21 [Speaker 6] Davis still would need to shell out $72,000 to remediate her home and another $82,000 to replace her contents. 00:18:29 [Speaker 6] However, State Farm said it would not pay her claims despite her policy stating that it does pay for pollutant damage. 00:18:36 [Speaker 4] And I interpreted the contract, the policy to say that a hygienist was paid for if the pollutants and contaminants were caused by a covered loss. 00:18:49 [Speaker 4] Fire and smoke are covered losses. 00:18:53 [Speaker 4] And, you know, and the policy's poorly written or intentionally written 00:18:58 [Speaker 2] with lots of double negatives and everything. 00:18:58 [Speaker 2] But when you go through all those 00:18:58 [Speaker 4] double negatives, it's still negatives and everything. 00:19:01 [Speaker 4] But when you go through all those double negatives, it still ends up saying we will pay for contaminants that come into your home because of smoke and fire. 00:19:11 [Speaker 6] Seeing no progress with State Farm, which cycled through five adjusters for Davis, Davis Davis turned to filing a dead end complaint with the Department of Insurance. 00:19:20 [Speaker 6] But unsurprisingly, the department misinterpreted her policy, she said. 00:19:25 [Speaker 6] So forget picking up the phone and get things done. 00:19:28 [Speaker 6] Davis got into her car, drove to a workshop where she confronted a State Farm representative about her claim denial. 00:19:35 [Speaker 4] And she went away and talked to supposedly the head of the entire sort of Southern California State Farm recovery operation and came out, and she said we'll pay for the the cleanup. 00:19:54 [Speaker 6] It took a couple of aggressive phone calls, but Davis said she got State Farm to pay for remediation, the contents of her home, as well as housing and living expenses. 00:20:08 [Speaker 6] Tip nine, know your rights. 00:20:14 [Speaker 6] According to attorneys I spoke with, insurance companies have obligations to protect you in California. 00:20:20 [Speaker 6] They should act in good faith and give your interest as much consideration as their own. 00:20:26 [Speaker 6] That means no lowballing, stalling, or denying claims without justification. 00:20:31 [Speaker 6] Fair and thorough investigations. 00:20:32 [Speaker 6] They must investigate all aspects of your claim, not just those that benefit them, the insurer. 00:20:38 [Speaker 6] All fire damage, including that from smoke and ash, must be considered. 00:20:42 [Speaker 6] Full disclosure of your rights. 00:20:44 [Speaker 6] You're entitled to clear communication about your policy and your rights as a policyholder via written documentation. 00:20:50 [Speaker 6] In declared state of emergencies, like in California, the following relief is triggered. 00:20:55 [Speaker 6] Expenses. 00:20:56 [Speaker 6] An insurer must give a policyholder four months of what are called additional lintzes if the home is inhabitable. 00:21:02 [Speaker 6] It is money upfront, and you shouldn't have to ask for this, but it is dependent on each policy. 00:21:07 [Speaker 6] This pays for food, rent, and relocation costs. 00:21:10 [Speaker 6] Negotiate. 00:21:11 [Speaker 6] If you haven't used all the money for coverage c and d under your policy, then you can try negotiating with insurance companies. 00:21:17 [Speaker 6] Coverage c is the bucket of personal property claims you can draw from the stuff inside your home. 00:21:22 [Speaker 6] Coverage d entails payment for your living expenses, so use that to your benefit as companies want to close claims and adjusters are judged on that. 00:21:30 [Speaker 6] Mandatory renewal. 00:21:31 [Speaker 6] If you lit or next to a fire perimeter, insurance companies must renew your policy for at least one year after a declared emergency. 00:21:38 [Speaker 6] Primary point of contact. 00:21:39 [Speaker 6] If you had three or more claims adjusters within six months, you are entitled to a primary point of contact with someone you can directly communicate with and who will handle your claim until it is closed. 00:21:51 [Speaker 6] The insurer at this point must also provide you with a written status report, including a summary of any decisions or actions that are substantially related to the disposition of a claim. 00:22:04 [Speaker 6] And tip 10, collective action. 00:22:12 [Speaker 6] Harness the power of community mobilization by joining group chats, online organizing channels like Discord, and in person community gatherings of wildfire victims and policyholders. 00:22:22 [Speaker 6] Here's Tim McCune once again. 00:22:24 [Speaker 2] Number one, just stay stay plugged into the the network and and make sure you're talking to your friends and neighbors and make sure you understand what to expect. 00:22:32 [Speaker 2] So that's far and away the most important thing. 00:22:35 [Speaker 6] Below that is the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which began as a pre fire community pickleball group that transformed into a now almost 6,000 member grassroots force. 00:22:44 [Speaker 6] When they realized that just one insurance company, State Farm, dominated community complaints about claims, delays, denials, and underpayments, they took action cataloging claims issues. 00:22:55 [Speaker 10] Our survivors of the Eden fire are calling out State Farm Insurance Company over what they say is a pattern of delays and denial of claims as they try to rebuild their community. 00:23:05 [Speaker 11] This is not isolated. 00:23:06 [Speaker 11] This is systemic. 00:23:08 [Speaker 11] And these State Farm policy owners, victims of the deadly and devastating Eaton Fire, are calling out what they call the company's lack of compassion and conduct. 00:23:16 [Speaker 12] Victims whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the Eaton Fire are accusing State Farm of a pattern of delays and denials in handling their claims. 00:23:24 [Speaker 12] Today, they gathered in Pasadena demanding California's insurance commissioner reject the company's proposed 22% rate hike. 00:23:32 [Speaker 12] The fire 00:23:32 [Speaker 1] State Farm even admits that they have the money to pay their claims from the Eden fire. 00:23:38 [Speaker 1] Rate hike request is not about making the people behind me whole. 00:23:42 [Speaker 1] They just wanna pad their bank accounts. 00:23:44 [Speaker 6] Soon, the California insurance commissioner was forced to launch an investigation into the company's conduct. 00:23:49 [Speaker 13] Ricardo Lara, California's insurance commissioner, announced a formal investigation into State Farm on Thursday as complaints continue to mount about the insurer's handling of claims from the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles. 00:24:04 [Speaker 6] So there you have it. 00:24:05 [Speaker 6] 10 tips that you can use right now. 00:24:07 [Speaker 6] For more, visit consumerwatchdog. 00:24:09 [Speaker 6] And check out our in-depth report, lowball. 00:24:13 [Speaker 6] Thanks for listening, and please rate and share this episode. 00:24:16 [Speaker 6] I'm Justin Klosko. 00:24:18 [Speaker 6] Bye for now. 00:24:21 [Speaker 6] Smoke and Mirrors is written and produced by Justin Klosko, engineering and sound design by John Ennis. 00:24:27 [Speaker 6] Our editor is Carmen Balber, and our executive producer is Jamie Korp.