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Bill would centralize fire‑loss reporting at Insurance Commissioner, add immediacy and confidentiality provisions
Summary
SB 5419 would require insurers to report fire loss information directly to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, set reporting timeframes, require immediate reports of suspected criminal activity to law enforcement, provide civil immunity for reporting insurers and protect reported data from public disclosure.
The Senate Committee on Business, Financial Services and Trade heard testimony Jan. 29 on SB 5419, a bill revising how insurers report fire losses to state authorities to improve timeliness, public‑safety coordination and data protection.
Under current law insurers file fire‑loss reports with the Washington State Patrol; the bill would require direct reporting to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC), specify reporting timeframes and expand the data elements insurers must include. For known or suspected criminal activity the bill would require immediate notice to the OIC and to local or tribal law‑enforcement agencies and would require those agencies to share information and coordinate with local fire officials.
Sponsor Sen. John Lovick told the committee the measure updates an older statute and will make data collection more efficient and timely to support public‑safety planning and insurance analytics. “This will help with public safety planning and accurate pricing of homeowners insurance,” Lovick said.
Office of the Insurance Commissioner staff said the bill would enable better outreach and mitigation efforts if OIC can analyze where and why losses occur. “If the data shows that we have a high number of kitchen fires, maybe we can do public service announcements and look into mitigation devices,” senior policy adviser David Fort said.
The bill also provides civil immunity for an insurer that reports known or suspected criminal activity or cooperates with a criminal subpoena. It includes explicit confidentiality and privilege provisions for fire‑loss information and exempts that information from disclosure under the Public Records Act while outlining the limited entities with whom OIC may share it.
Representatives of the Washington Insurers — while supporting the bill’s goals of reducing fires and protecting information — asked the committee to narrow and clarify some of the bill’s open‑ended reporting requirements, such as language requiring “any subsequent adjustment or further investigation” and a catch‑all requiring “any other information required by the commissioner.” Industry representatives said unclear or overly broad reporting mandates could be burdensome and requested work with OIC to make reporting implementable.
The committee advanced the bill through public testimony and discussion; no committee vote was recorded at the hearing.
