A phone call brings a new assignment: a large fire destroyed several local businesses in a strip mall. While initial reports suggested the fire was still under investigation, witnesses noted that they first saw fire from the grocery store, the anchor tenant, and it spread to the neighboring book store and salon. While the fire department contained the blaze to those three stores, the remaining businesses sustained varying degrees of smoke and water damage. Those stores, though fortunate to escape the direct physical damage, would remain closed while the fire was investigated and the damages repaired.

This is how the morning started for Wayne, a general adjuster for a national independent adjuster (IA) firm. Shortly after taking the assignment, Wayne received the ACORD first notice of loss (FNOL) form and the insurance policy for the grocery store, a national chain. The property coverage for this loss came through a manuscript policy where four separate carriers had taken on a percentage of the risk. One carrier had assumed half the risk and was designated as the lead, while the remaining carriers had divided up the remaining risk by varying amounts. 

As Wayne began documenting and preserving the scene, another carrier approached him about acting as an IA for the book store's property claim. As Wayne pondered whether he could serve as the independent adjuster for this claim, the fire investigator he retained uncovered information regarding the cause of the fire. Investigators placed the origin close to a hot water heater, and the grocery store manager admitted that, prior to the fire, there were discarded cardboard boxes stacked up against the heater near the burner. However, the fire investigator also confirmed there was a sprinkler system in this area that could have put out the fire, but that it had been shut off by a painter working inside the store.