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In The
News
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1. Fire victims to get $5.2M
Burned home led to
feud over insurance
By Caroline An, Staff Writer
11/10/05
CLAREMONT - In the first court case stemming from the 2003 wildfires to
reach a verdict, a Claremont couple was awarded nearly $5.2 million in punitive
damages from their insurance company this week.
A jury in Pomona found Wednesday that Fidelity National Insurance Company
acted with malice, oppression and fraud in the handling of a claim filed by
Larry Stone and Linda Della Pelle.
2. Fallbrook Couple Loses Wildfire Insurance
LawsuitThe following comes from the New 8 aka
www.kfmb.com website on Thurs 11/17/05 at
3:56PM
Fallbrook Couple Loses Wildfire Insurance
Lawsuit
Last Updated:
11-16-05 at 8:45AM
A jury has ruled in favor of an insurance company accused of not paying
up to a couple who fell victim to a wildfire.
Robert and Ann Burton
claimed Allstate Insurance failed to pay the entire amount that was promised,
after their home was destroyed by a 2002 Fallbrook fire.
The Burtons
claim their plan offered up to 50 percent more money than the stated coverage
amount.
However, jurors were given signed contracts that showed the
higher payments were only for the Burtons' home and not their possessions.
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3. A touch of the Shire
Sunday, November 13, 2005
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI / The Press-Enterprise
Kevin Aley goes his own way.
In 1989, when most people were building traditional houses and log cabins
in Cedar Glen near Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains, Aley went
with a storybook theme. His 1,164-square-foot, split-level home -- with its
arched doors, rock turrets and pitched roof -- came to be known as the Hobbit
House.
And, after the October 2003 Old Fire reduced it and 334 neighboring houses
to ash and rubble, Aley was the first to rebuild.
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4. Ready to grab and go
You can't take the filing cabinet. But you can prepare for an
evacuation with technology that makes papers and inventories portable. It's one
less thing to worry about.
By Jennifer Lisle, Special to The Times
November 6, 2005
JEFF BASENBERG didn't have much time when he evacuated his Box Canyon
home on Sept. 28.
"The fire was moving so fast," Basenberg said. "Within 30 minutes there was
a lot of smoke, and it was hard to breathe outside."
But because Basenberg and his family knew that canyon living involves the
threat of wildfires, they were prepared to make a quick getaway.
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5. New Orleans Picks Up
Construction Contractor,
New in Town, Stays Busy
Thomas S. Mulligan, LA Times Staff Writer
October 30, 2005
NEW ORLEANS — In a sparsely furnished storefront office about a mile
from New Orleans' central business district, William Martt, president of
Brigadier Construction Services, was simultaneously working the phone and the
computer on a recent weekday morning, surrounded by whiteboards that were
filling up with cryptic notations about the progress of the various projects his
year-old firm had undertaken.
One board contained nothing but acronyms representing the company's
customers: VA, USN, USACE, FBI, USAF, USPS, CG — mainly branches of the federal
government, particularly the Department of Defense.
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6. Cedar fire starter given probation, no prison time
Blaze wasn't attempt to harm, judge rules
By Onell R.
Soto
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 18, 2005
JOHN R. McCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune
After his sentencing hearing in San
Diego federal court, Sergio Martinez told reporters last night that he felt as
if great weights were lifted from his hands and
shoulders.
Witnesses angry at man who started fire,
system
A federal judge rejected prison yesterday for the man
who caused the devastating Cedar fire, finding that the blaze was not set
recklessly or in an attempt to hurt anyone.
Judge Roger T. Benitez said Sergio Martinez did what he thought he was
supposed to do when he became lost while deer hunting in October 2003. The judge
also found no evidence that Martinez was under the influence of drugs or alcohol
when he started the fire.
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7. Friendship, motherhood bring bundles of joy after
tragedy
By Jane Clifford
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE FAMILY
EDITOR
October 29, 2005
The women gravitated toward each other at post-fire meetings in Scripps
Ranch. All five had babies less than 6 months old. They commiserated about all
the things new moms experience, as well as the extraordinary demands they faced
in the aftermath of the Cedar fire, which swallowed their homes and everything
in them.
CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune
Their moms, who supported one another
after the Cedar fire, are hopeful that (from left) 7-month-olds Annelise Larson
and Emily Anderson, 6-month-old Bridgett Colletto and 5-month-olds Hannah Drouin
and Grace Costello will continue to lean on each other as they grow up.
Today, the women are back in rebuilt homes, just a couple of blocks from
each other on Pinecastle Street, Fairbrook Road and Birch Bluff Avenue. And they
have five new babies, all around 6 months old. Their wish is for their daughters
to grow up together, developing the same lasting friendship their moms now have.
They celebrated that – and a return to normal life – at a "We're back in party"
at the end of August, once the last family was settled.