Finding the truth
A dangerous precedent is being followed in the Insurance Industry concerning the investigation of smart meter fires. How can I make such a statement with confidence, well I was in the Insurance Industry as a Property Claims Specialist for over 40 years. The following is a outline of what occurs when a fire loss is submitted to a claims department for handling.
When a fire claim is submitted to the Insurance Company, the adjuster will inspect the damage and properly complete the adjustment process to determine how much will be reimbursed to the insured based upon the coverage information provided by the policy.
One of the main issues associated with the adjustment process is to determine what caused the fire and to pursue the responsible party, whether it is a person or a malfunctioning product. What the adjuster will be looking for when they make the initial contact with the insured is to determine if it is possible to spot the problem that caused the fire even before the total reimbursement is made.
Part of the problem I faced as a Claims Adjuster and other Adjusters are dealing with, is that when the fire department receives the notice of a fire, one of the first things they do, is to notify the local public utilities to shut off the utilities, preventing the further spread of the fire. When the local electrical utility arrives and determines that a smart meter is perhaps the issue, they have been removing the meter, and preventing the inspection of the meter by the experts the Insurance Company has to determine if the Meter is responsible in some fashion for the fire.
This is a serious situation as the utility company, upon removal of the meter, is tampering with what is evidence concerning the cause of the fire, and I believe could be held criminally responsible. When this type of situation exists, the first thing that an Adjuster must do is to instruct the Insured to contact the Utility Company and request they make available the Meter for inspection to determine if it was the cause of the fire.
An example of this situation of the removal of the meter(s) from the fire scene, the following is taken directly from the San Diego Fire Department’s Incident report regarding a fire at a small shopping center:
On February 26, 2014 a fire broke out at Friars Village, which is a shopping mall located at 10450 Friars Road in the beautiful town of San Diego, California. Information concerning this fire is contained in the San Diego Fire Department’s Incident Report Number FS14023257.
Two important entries in the report provide for us an independent account of what took place at the Friars Village Shopping Mall. The first at 18:21:42, is stated, “10 minutes into incident 2 electric boxes on fire”; the second entry occurred at 19:42:09, “2 San Diego Gas and Electric Meters are on fire.” As of this day, the meters mentioned in the report have not been made available for examination.
In June of 2015, two blackouts occurred in busy Las Vegas, Nevada restaurants believed to be caused by smart meter failures. Nevada Energy has removed the meters and as of this day, the meters have still not been examined, although the claims were paid and closed. However, the real issue as to why all the meters are failing is not being dealt with.
Respectfully,
Norman Lambe
nwlambe@gmail.com