
Los Angeles-area residents crowdsource wildfire contamination data in battle with insurers
CBSN
All sense of survivors' guilt was fleeting for those residents whose homes remained standing after wildfires ripped through the Los Angeles area three months ago.
Many worried that smoke from the Eaton wildfire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 18 people may have carried toxins, including lead, asbestos and heavy metals, into their homes. But they struggled to convince their insurers to test their properties to ensure it was safe to return.
Nicole Maccalla, a data scientist, said embers burned more than half of her roof, several windows and eaves were damaged, and her house in Altadena was left filled with ash, debris, soot and damaged appliances. She said her insurance adjuster said USAA would pay for contamination testing, but after choosing a company and coming back with the results, her claim was rejected. The adjuster said the company only covered testing in homes with major damage.

When the charred remains of prominent commercial real estate attorney Gary Farris were discovered on a burn pile with a bullet lodged in a rib bone, detectives knew they were facing a homicide investigation. The crime scene was on a sprawling 10-acre property in Cherokee County, Georgia, where Gary Farris lived with his wife Melody and their son Scott.

A private equity executive turned his New York City apartment into a torture chamber of "grotesque sexual violence," Manhattan prosecutors said Thursday. Ryan Hemphill is accused of raping six women over five months in a depraved rampage in which he allegedly punched, waterboarded and shocked victims with a cattle prod and kept recordings of the assaults as trophies.

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