Do insurers even pay out for fires like these which may be considered “acts of nature” or “acts of terrorism”? I wonder if there might be a clause in most homeowners’ insurance that distinguishes between a fire caused by say faulty electrical wiring in the home as opposed to a massive fire like this?

This would seem to be a somewhat parallel situation to what happened after New Orleans. One side was arguing that the damage was caused by flooding and the other side was arguing that the damage was caused by the hurricane because the typical policy only covered one of those acts.

In any event, I sure wouldn’t want to have to rely on an insurance payout in a situation like this. I’m sure the insurers will fight hard and it’s not like they have infinite capital anyway. We may soon be reading about FIs (effed insurers).