Claims News Service, Nov. 21, 8:53 a.m. EST -- The total insured losses from the Freeway Complex, Sayre and Tea Fires in Southern California will likely reach figures between $600 and $800 million, says AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe risk modeling firm. These estimates include damage to or destruction of primary structures, their contents, and estimated additional living expenses for residential policies or business interruption for commercial properties. Additionally, AIR will dispatch a post-disaster survey team to Southern California.

"The actual fire perimeters continue to be refined as more information comes in," explained Dr. Tomas Girnius, senior research scientist at AIR Worldwide. "Similarly, there is some uncertainty with respect to the extent to which fire suppression activities have been fully effective within all three perimeters. While many homes and businesses will have survived, the number of claims is likely to be significantly larger than the number of destroyed structures, although the size of each claim for a slightly damaged home is expected to be small."

Dying winds and mild temperatures helped firefighters control the wildfires that began raging across southern California last weekend. By Thursday morning, November 20, two of the three fires were fully contained and the third -- already reduced to a slow-moving, smoldering ground fire -- was 95 percent contained.