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Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers is no longer actively retaining McKinney Fire victims. |
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Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers is actively retaining McKinney Fire victims. We believe that electric utility PacifiCorp is responsible for the McKinney Fire, and utilities are responsible under California law for any damages resulting from fires they are responsible for.
We are representing victims of the McKinney Fire on a contingency. This means that we will not charge a fee unless we obtain financial compensation, and this fee won’t be charged until we obtain financial compensation.
We believe the McKinney Fire started because PacifiCorp failed to adequately maintain its electrical equipment and the vegetation surrounding the equipment. We can hold PacifiCorp accountable for their actions and obtain financial compensation for your:
- Evacuation costs
- Repair or replacement costs for your home and/or property
- Smoke damage
- Lost belongings or personal property
- Wage loss
- Emotional distress
- Medical expenses
- Death or injury caused by the fire
- Depreciation of land value
- Burial and funeral expenses
- Damage to trees, timber, or underwood
- Loss of or harm to your pets or livestock
- Loss of crops
- Business interruption
- Business losses
If you or someone you love was evacuated, injured, killed, or suffered property damage or destruction because of the McKinney Fire, you might qualify for financial recovery in a McKinney Fire lawsuit against PacifiCorp.
The McKinney Fire
The McKinney Fire ignited near McKinney Creek Road in Siskiyou County in Northern California at around 2:15 PM on July 29, 2022. As of August 24, 2022, it has burned 60,392 acres of land, destroyed 185 buildings, caused thousands of evacuations, and killed four people.
NBC Bay Area reported that the fire started underneath PacifiCorp’s 12,000-volt Scott Bar distribution line, which experienced a power outage hours earlier.
Countless California wildfires in recent years, such as the Dixie Fire and Camp Fire, have started due to utility companies’ failure to properly maintain their power lines and the vegetation near the power lines. We believe that the McKinney Fire is another example of utility company negligence leading to a wildfire.
We believe PacifiCorp should have known that conditions near its equipment, such as dry vegetation, low humidity, and strong winds, constituted a wildfire hazard.
Grounds for a McKinney Fire Lawsuit
We intend to sue PacifiCorp on behalf of McKinney Fire victims, seeking to recover financial compensation based on the causes of action of negligence and inverse condemnation.
Negligence is the failure to be reasonably careful to prevent harm from occurring. California law allows Californians to recover financial compensation for damages caused by others’ negligence. Utilities have a duty to exercise reasonable care in properly maintaining their power lines and the vegetation around them, and we believe PacifiCorp negligently failed to live up to this duty.
Inverse condemnation is written into the California Constitution and dictates that private property cannot be damaged for public use without just compensation being paid to the property owner. California courts have ruled this applies to property damage resulting from wildfires started by both public and private utility companies.
During our initial consultation, we can tell you more about if you have valid legal grounds for us to file a McKinney Fire lawsuit on your behalf.
Will My McKinney Fire Losses Be Covered by My Insurance Company?
Your McKinney Fire losses may not be totally covered by your insurance company. Lumber and building material prices have gone way up in recent years. And these rising prices, as well as the rising prices of labor, may result in the costs of rebuilding exceeding your insurance coverage limits.
We can file a McKinney Fire lawsuit on your behalf, which might help cover any McKinney Fire losses that aren’t covered by your insurance.
What Should I Do After the McKinney Fire?
You have legal rights if you or a loved one were harmed by the McKinney Fire, and it’s important that you take steps to make sure your rights are preserved. Even if you think all your losses will be covered by your insurance company, you should still:
- Immediately get ahold of your insurance company, tell them about your losses, and ask for a copy of your policy with them.
- Document everything, including bills, medical records, and any correspondence between you and your insurance company. Photograph any property damage.
- Start and keep a list of anything that was damaged or destroyed by the fire.
- Preserve receipts regarding any spending you do during the evacuation, such as lodging, clothing, and food costs.
- Call Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers as quickly as you can to prevent insurance companies from acting in bad faith, such as refusing to settle your claim for what it’s worth despite your policy covering your losses.
We can put our years of experience handling California wildfire cases to good use toward helping you recover the compensation you deserve for your McKinney Fire losses. The only fee we charge is a percentage of any recovery we obtain, and we don’t charge a fee if we don’t obtain a recovery.
McKinney Fire Mudslide Lawyer
Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can represent you and help you obtain financial compensation for your damages if you have been evacuated or suffered injury or property damage due to any mudslide caused by the McKinney Fire.
Wildfires such as the McKinney Fire can destabilize hillsides, leading to mudslides such as the mudslides which affected Southern California in early 2018. Soil on hillsides is typically held in place by vegetation, which protects hillsides from rain and gives water more time to soak into soil. However, when a wildfire destroys vegetation, the vegetation is no longer in place to stop soil from flowing down hillsides, and soil can even repel water, creating a river of debris and mud.
We believe that the McKinney Fire was caused by PacifiCorp, which would make them responsible for any mudslide caused by the fire’s destabilization of Northern California hillsides. Southern California Edison paid $360 million in a 2019 settlement over damages caused by the Thomas Fire in 2017 and the mudslide that the Thomas Fire led to in 2018.
If you are a victim of a mudslide that resulted from the McKinney Fire, you may be entitled to financial compensation for:
- Damage to your structures and home
- Damage to landscaping and vegetation
- Damage to household items
- Loss of land
- Erosion of land
- Damage to agriculture
- Death or injury
- The cost to live in a hotel or temporary residence after evacuation
- Costs associated with post-evacuation temporary living
- Lost business income and lost wages due to being unable to work
- Emotional distress, like anguish, fear or disturbance due to evacuation
I’m A Mudslide Victim – What If I Have Insurance?
If you had to evacuate because of a mudslide or you lost your home, your insurance may include an Alternative Living Expense Allowance which may help compensate you. This allowance won’t last forever, though.
You may also run into other issues. Your policy might not cover the entire replacement of your home because building materials may be more expensive than when you obtained your insurance policy. Your insurance policy might also fail to cover things like lost wages or precious photos.
Your insurance claim may even be denied because mudslides are excluded from a lot of homeowners’ insurance policies. However, insurance companies in California are responsible for paying financial compensation to policyholders when uncovered disasters like mudslides were actually caused by a covered disaster like a wildfire.
Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can prove to insurance companies that the mudslide you are a victim of was caused by the McKinney Fire, and we can obtain for you any financial compensation which isn’t covered by your insurance.
Why Hire Us?
Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers have tremendous experience representing victims of California wildfires. We have recovered over $750,000,000 in our 30+ years of representing Californians.
We have filed hundreds of legal actions on behalf of California wildfire victims, such as victims of the Dixie Fire, Camp Fire, Woolsey Fire, Zogg Fire, Butte Fire, and the Wine Country Fires. We know the ins and outs of California wildfire law and how to prove your damages were the result of a utility company’s negligence.
Reach Out to Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers Today
We’ve built a large network of experts in our years of representing wildfire victims. And these fire liability experts, public adjusters, business and residential valuators, and weather experts can help us build a strong case for you against PacifiCorp, providing priceless testimony that supports your claim for compensation.
Call us, text us from this page, or contact us online today for a free consultation. Let our McKinney Fire lawsuit lawyers recover for you the compensation you deserve from PacifiCorp.
