Residents to Get $100,000 to Fix Fireplaces

The insurance companies of a Thousand Oaks builder and a fireplace framer have agreed to pay residents in two subdivisions $100,000 to fix faulty fireplaces now lined with potentially combustible veneer instead of bricks and mortar.

The matter was settled after months of negotiations between the two companies and city officials working on behalf of the nearly 200 residents, who were threatening to file a class-action lawsuit.

The City Council is expected to approve the agreement in early May, making way for officials to distribute the funds to the residents in the Del Cerro and Newbury Park housing tracts.

“Overall, the homeowners are very positive,” said Perry Angress, who owns a home in one of the housing tracts. “We just hope city officials will administer the funds in a timely matter.”

According to city documents, Thousand Oaks building inspectors knew after a house fire in 1980 that the fireplaces were dangerously constructed. But there was a change in staff in the Building and Safety Department, and the city failed to warn residents of the hazard, officials said.

The problems did not become apparent again until last October, when another house fire was caused by a faulty fireplace, and the city ordered residents to stop using their fireplaces until they could be fixed.

According to Barry J. Branagan, the city’s director of building and safety, the concrete, prefabricated fireplaces were installed in violation of state and city codes when the three- to five-bedroom homes were built between 1975 and 1978.

He said wood frames were placed too close to the mouth of the fireplaces when they were installed, and the masonry on their fronts turned out to be a veneer instead of solid brick. Both building shortcuts can lead to fires, he said.

The residents responded by threatening to file a lawsuit against the city, Aetna and Signa insurance companies, builder Roger Boyar and fireplace framer William Chapman.

As a result, city officials, who said they felt a moral obligation to the residents, worked to solve the problem.

“We’ve come up with a positive resolution to a tough problem,” Branagan said.

John Giacomin, a general adjuster for Aetna Insurance Co., said the insurance companies will provide additional funds if the residents’ expenses exceed $100,000.

“We want to get this resolved,” Giacomin said.

So far, residents are spending between $250 and $3,000 each to repair the faulty fireplaces, Angress said.