FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2017 file photo, California's State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones talks during a news conference in Los Angeles. California's insurance commissioner says homeowners who lost their homes in last month's wildfires in Northern California have up to 24 months to collect insurance payments. Jones said Monday, Nov. 20, some out-of-state insurance adjusters brought in by companies to help with the high volume of claims have wrongly told homeowners they have between six and 12 months. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
They’re 3 times larger that they were a month ago: Insurance claims for the deadly wildfires that swept across Northern California in October are now at over nine-billion-dollars. State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said yesterday the figure represents residential, commercial, automobile and other property claims filed with about 260 insurers by December 1st. People have filed claims about full or partial losses of more than 18-thousand homes, most of them in Sonoma County. Jones said despite the staggering losses in a short period of time, there’s “no question” that insurers have the money available to pay claims.