Insurers report record claims from wildfires statewide

As homeowners north of Houston return to assess wildfire damage, insurers are reporting record numbers of fire claims from throughout the state. Initial estimates put losses from these fires at up to $250 million, including $20 million from the Magnolia-area fire alone, said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, an industry trade group. Adjusters are still waiting to get into the hardest hit area, Bastrop, Hanna said. But the estimates suggest Texas fire losses for 2011 have already surpassed the record $115 million losses in 2009.