The insurer of the Grenfell Tower apartment building in London’s Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, that was the site of a tragic fire this week, has said that the insurance loss is anticipated at over £25 million ($31.8m) and said that Munich Re is its lead provider of reinsurance.
The 24 storey Grenfell Tower building, which contains 120 apartments, caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with the blaze rapidly spreading up the building and resulting in significant damage to the property, with a tragic loss of life and injury to residents.
Norwegian insurer Protector Forsikring ASA had said that it was the insurer for the building operated by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council, and so involved in the fire coverage for the tower block. The insurer said that it anticipated that the loss from the Grenfell Tower fire would “mainly be picked up by Protector’s reinsurance program.”
Now the company has revealed that the building itself is covered with a £20 million policy, which given the extensive damage to the tower block it is hard to see doing anything other than paying out in full. Additionally, Protector Forsikring foresees other costs including those for re-housing residents would take the total loss above £25 million.
“Reinsurance is handled by Munich Re, which will pick up almost the entire cost,” Protector CEO Sverre Bjerkeli told the Reuters news agency.
So Munich Re looks set to be the company that pays the lions share of the costs associated with the tragic blaze on Wednesday morning.
Update 22nd June: Media reports suggest that the Grenfell Tower apartment building fire could lead to an insurance industry loss of as much as £1 billion.
