Fire damage claims head for a billion

THOUSANDS of insurance claims are pouring in as fire damage in the Southern and Eastern Cape over the past week runs into hundreds of millions.

Insurance providers say they are inundated with claims and calls which, accumulatively, already exceed R600-million.

Providers who insure property in the Garden Route and Knysna areas have described the fires as the most tragic event they have dealt with in over 20 years.

Garden Route Insurance Brokers CEO Dan Payton said they estimate the value of the claims for both fire and storm damage in the Knysna and Plettenburg Bay area to be around R300-million.

Outsurance client relations head Natasha Kawulesar said: “We currently have approximately 930 claims of which about 150 are claims relating to the fires with a combined estimate of R200-million.”

Old Mutual Insure claims head Hennie Nortje said their largest claim to date was a R15million claim on a damaged college.

Santam claims head Ebrahim Asmal said their claims were already in excess of R100million. — TMG