Fire Loss in Kansas
According to the statistics published by the state superintendent of insurance for Kansas, the payments by the insurance companies in the state for losses by fire amounted to $3,111,272 during the year ending July 1, 1911. These: figures represent about 50 per cent, of the total loss sustained, and do not take into account losses by the non-insured nor those paid by concerns over which the state department of insurance exercises no supervision. The aggregate loss represents property approximately equal to $3 per capita, and if the low insurance rate that is asked for is to he secured, the fire waste —chiefly the result of what is really criminal carelessness—must he reduced, or the higher rates must rule. Kansas as a state has no fire marshal. and it is recommended by the state superintendent that one should be appointed with ample powers of inspection and investigation of all questionable fires. The report lays stress upon the prevalence of over-insurance as an incentive to arson, anti points out that the “remedy for over-insurance, and consequently the elimination of incendiarism, is to fix by statute an insurance valuation on all real property. A solution would be to provide that the value fixed by the last assessor’s returns on real estate shall be the insurance value.”
According to the statistics published by the state superintendent of insurance for Kansas, the payments by the insurance companies in the state for losses by fire amounted to $3,111,272 during the year ending July 1, 1911. These: figures represent about 50 per cent, of the total loss sustained, and do not take into account losses by the non-insured nor those paid by concerns over which the state department of insurance exercises no supervision. The aggregate loss represents property approximately equal to $3 per capita, and if the low insurance rate that is asked for is to he secured, the fire waste —chiefly the result of what is really criminal carelessness—must he reduced, or the higher rates must rule. Kansas as a state has no fire marshal. and it is recommended by the state superintendent that one should be appointed with ample powers of inspection and investigation of all questionable fires. The report lays stress upon the prevalence of over-insurance as an incentive to arson, anti points out that the “remedy for over-insurance, and consequently the elimination of incendiarism, is to fix by statute an insurance valuation on all real property. A solution would be to provide that the value fixed by the last assessor’s returns on real estate shall be the insurance value.”
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