Accidental Fire, Farmers Insurance bills fire victims $420,000

By Tracy Vedder

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- First a devastating fire robbed a local family of nearly everything. Then a big insurance company tried to take the rest and more, hitting the family with a bill of $420,000.

Last October Chris Christoffersen and her daughter Melissa awoke to devastation. The apartment complex they lived in was engulfed in flames.

"I watched everything from throughout my life - gone. Gone in just a few seconds," she said.

Now their furniture, TV, computer and even their clothes consist of second-hand donations.

Things were looking up until the family got a phone call from Farmers Insurance, which insures the apartment complex.

Farmers wanted $350,000 to repair the four units damaged in the fire.

"(I thought) I just lost everything in a fire five months ago and you want $350,000 from me?" Christoffersen said.

The University Place Fire Department ruled the fire accidental. The fire had it started in the area where Christoffersen's couch was pushed against the baseboard heater.

"These things happen, they're accidental. It's just the way it is and there was no malicious intent discovered at all," said Asst. Fire Chief Dave Dupille.

Then Christoffersen got her first and only bill from a collections agency demanding that she pay $420,000.

She was obviously shocked, but neither the apartment management company nor the fire department has ever heard of an insurance company going after a tenant to pay for an accidental fire.

"It's not a reasonable thing that I've ever heard of, no," said Dupille.

The Problem Solvers contacted Farmers for an explanation. Two days later Farmers decided that "after consulting with our claims department... (we've) chosen not to pursue the matter."

"Relief! I'm just absolutely relieved that that's just done," said Christoffersen.

Now the family can concentrate on getting their lives back to normal.

The state insurance commissioner told the Problem Solvers that Washington courts have ruled that insurance companies cannot hold tenants responsible for fire damages unless it's expressly written in the lease.

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