Property Insurance FundamentalsQuestion 229 of 474
Firefighters put out a covered kitchen fire and their water ruins the ceiling of the room below. That ceiling damage is:
a.Excluded, because water damage is a peril
b.Covered, but only under a water back-up part
c.Covered, because fire is the proximate cause
d.Excluded, because the fire department did it
Explanation
Water applied to extinguish a covered fire is part of the unbroken chain the fire started, so the fire remains the proximate cause and the ceiling damage is a fire loss. Calling it excluded water damage misreads the chain and would leave almost every fire claim half paid. Back-up coverage deals with water rising through drains and sewers, which is not what happened here.
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