Hence the cold wintry weather conditions, there was an increase in number of fires related heating households and flooding caused by damages to home heating systems. The end of the week was marked by a 51% increase in home insurance claims filed to BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS (BTA) as compared to the preceding weeks.

The most typical problems are related to heating systems, flues, and careless attitude to fire. Several claims were submitted in regard to fires, which were caused by boiler dust ignition in a flue or damages to a boiler. Such kind of accidents occur in the beginning of every heating season, and they might have been avoided if only owners called a chimney sweep to clean the chimney in summer, as well as if they performed timely maintenance of their boiler.

Pipes of heating systems were damaged in many multiapartment buildings, which resulted into water draining off and damaging ceilings, walls, or floors of apartments. Whereas pipes oftentimes are hidden under floor tiles or wall panels, replacement of embedded pipes require cutting large openings. Due to repair and furnishing work required to avert the damages, each claim of the above-mentioned type costs about EUR 1000 and more.

“Among the received insurance claims there are many insured events that could have been avoided altogether, if only homeowners acted responsibly. For instance, fires still occur due to a burn out candle, which was left unattended by the owners or because they simply fell asleep. Therefore, throughout the upcoming four weeks I encourage all of you to be very careful while you burn candles in your Advent wreath or a Christmas tree. Moreover, using your fireplaces or furnaces requires great care as well, because even a carelessly thrown piece of firewood that has already caught fire and rolled out of a fireplace can ignite the adjacent objects and cause a fire, sparks produced by raw wood can cause a fire as well,” BTA Claims Handling Department director Kārlis Liepiņš encourages to handle fire with care.

The gravity of the situation is evidenced by the fact that during the heating season almost every day comes with a new insurance claim for real estate damages caused by a fire or flooding.

About BTA
BTA Baltic Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance companies in the Baltics, offering the broadest range of non-life insurance services in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. BTA employs more than 1,000 employees in the Baltics. The sole shareholder of BTA is Vienna Insurance Group AG (VIG), the leading insurance group both in Austria and in the entire Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Around 50 insurance companies in 30 countries form a Group with a long-standing tradition, strong brands and close customer relations. The more than 25,000 employees in the VIG take care of the day-to-day needs of more than 22 million customers. VIG shares have been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1994. The VIG Group has an A+ rating with stable outlook by the internationally recognised rating agency Standard & Poor's. VIG cooperates closely with the Erste Group, the largest retail bank in Central and Eastern Europe.

Additional information:
Elīna Zvejniece
Marketing and Public Relations Department Director
BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS
e-mail elina.zvejniece@bta.lv
mobile: +371 29374827