The first time Nareen Hindoyan and Noah Kazanjian saw their Altadena home after the Eaton fire, “Ash and debris were everywhere—six inches deep in the doorway. And the smell was so intense,” Hindoyan remembers.
It was the day after the fire, and “The air was poison indoors, poison outdoors. The same in both—terrible,” Kazanjian says.
Whenever they visited—wearing N95 masks—they left with “searing headaches.”
“And we were the fortunate ones,” says Hindoyan. Although their home sustained major damage, it was one of the few in their neighborhood left standing when the flames were out.
It’s been just over a year since the Eaton Fire ravaged the Altadena community, destroying more than 9,400 structures—over 6,100 homes—and claiming 19 lives.
As soon as Hindoyan, a respected local pediatrician, learned the extent of the fire’s devastation, she knew that their home was unsafe for the family—especially their children, ages five and two. This was not just a clean-up job; they would need thorough testing for contaminants and extensive remediation.
The couple promptly filed a claim with their homeowner’s insurance carrier, Mercury Insurance. They could not have imagined it would precipitate a grueling year-long battle for proper payment, including a lawsuit––or that it would expose the ways bad faith insurance practices put vulnerable children at risk of permanent illness and injury.
From the start, Mercury attempted to shift the burden onto the family, pushing to close the claim in February before any of its adjusters had inspected the property, performed any environmental testing, or reviewed any hygienist report or remediation scope—a clear violation of California law.
The family refused the insurer’s initial offer, insisting on proper testing before beginning remediation. Dipping into their own savings, Hindoyan and Kazanjian spent thousands of dollars to hire Quantum Environmental Testing, Inc. to test for various toxic contaminants in their home.
Quantum’s report confirmed the couple’s worst fears: the home contained dangerously high levels of wildfire-related toxins—most concerningly for a family with young children, lead.
Mercury representatives told the couple that tests don’t prove contamination is fire-related and refused to cover it. “They just said, ‘We do not believe it,’” Kazanjian recalls.
Mercury then ordered separate testing. Titan, the testing company hired by the insurer, likewise found toxic amounts of lead throughout the home, including in the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and kids’ bedroom.
Mercury not only repeatedly ignored well-documented evidence of serious contamination submitted by their client, but also failed to heed the recommendations of their own consultants after the evaluation corroborated Quantum’s results.
“They told us, ‘Just use a HEPA vacuum, and this magic lead wipe.’ And I said, ‘You clearly don't understand what I do—that is not how you remediate for lead. Talk to the public health department.’ They said, ‘That's all you need.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Hindoyan recalls.
In June, the children’s doctor, Stephanie L. Mackanic, D.O., provided a statement advising the insurer, “Lead is a known toxin to humans and more so for young individuals 6 years and younger. Risks of short-term and long-term exposure include: anemia, myalgia, arthralgias, severe decline of neurocognitive functioning, depression/anxiety, neuropathy, brain structural changes, and cardiovascular disease.”
Dr. Mackanic also specified, “It is very well known that lead cannot be remediated from soft surfaces, porous surfaces, and any object with a vent. The family requires all these objects in the home be disposed of, and hard surfaces be properly remediated to prevent lead exposure and its detrimental effects.”
Still, Mercury refused to pay for the replacement of personal items or to deem them a total loss due to contamination.
Throughout the ordeal, Mercury fought aggressively to minimize rightful payouts. The company misrepresented policy provisions and requirements, and hired unqualified, incompetent, and biased consultants to investigate and evaluate losses. They consistently undervalued and mischaracterized the scope and severity of damage, and caused unreasonable delays.
“There’s a common playbook in insurance bad faith cases: delay the reports, challenge the science, minimize the damage, and hope families get worn down before the claim is ever properly paid,” says the family’s attorney, Kabateck LLP Managing Partner Shant Karnikian. He says the case reflects a broader pattern: insurers are far more willing to pay total-loss claims than contamination claims, leaving families in limbo unless they sue.
In September, eight months post-fire and after initial remediation, Titan (the insurer’s hired inspector) retested the home and issued a follow-up report concluding that harmful levels of lead dust remained in some areas.
Throughout, Mercury not only declined to cover the family’s out-of-pocket expenses for testing and remediation of well-documented damage, but also withheld payments for undisputed amounts, in violation of both California law and industry standards.
“When insurers argue that appliances, clothing, and children’s belongings can just be cleaned, they ignore the real question: Is it actually safe? Families shouldn’t have to choose between their health and financial survival,” Karnikian added.
“To not have the support of the company you pay to support you in situations like this —it just made it a million times harder. So anxiety-provoking and sad,” says Kazanjian.
Ultimately, the couple felt a lawsuit was their only option. Through this insurance bad faith action, Hindoyan and Kazanjian seek to recover what is owed to them under their insurance policy, additional damages sustained as a result of Mercury’s bad faith conduct, and punitive damages to ensure insurers think twice about taking advantage of other policyholders.
They emphasize that the suit is not just about their own experience and circumstances. “As far as our case, we just want what’s fair,” said Kazanjian.
More broadly, they hope their story and suit—especially through the lens of Dr. Hindoyan’s professional expertise—offer a public health perspective that helps bring substantive change.
In her pediatric practice, Dr. Hindoyan treats local children with asthma, pulmonary issues, and elevated lead levels. Since the fire, she says, “We have been very proactive in testing our patients for lead who have had an exposure. And depending on exposure risk, we're also testing for other heavy metals and toxins in patients. We know this fire released asbestos, arsenic, chromium, beryllium, silver—so many things that were in the environment that were either not tested for or not remediated. We're explaining the risks to our patients, so they're aware. And it's just going to require a lot more surveillance.”
“This case is especially painful because Dr. Hindoyan treats children affected by environmental exposure every day, yet she’s had to fight her own insurer to make sure her family’s home is safe to return to,” says Karnikian.
Dr. Hindoyan also knows that many Altadena families lack the financial resources to independently order proper environmental testing and remediation—and further, that most fire victims don’t have the benefit of her medical insight, including a deep understanding of dangerous contaminants and their health hazards.
In the wake of a devastating, life-altering natural disaster, “it becomes a balancing act,” the couple explained, “of physical health and mental health.” Many families, understandably desperate to return home and to familiar life, moved back into their houses after only basic cleaning or light remediation. Many are unaware that their children are living—and may live for months and years—in severely polluted homes.
“The problem is the effects are cumulative. You could have exposure just for a couple of weeks and have some effects, but [over time], these effects multiply. The exposure and risks are monumental if not taken care of appropriately,” Hindoyan says.
She believes insurers have failed to do due diligence to protect families—especially children—after wildfires.
“I think the Altadena fire is unprecedented,” Hindoyan says. But here in California, where the threat of fire is a constant reality, she hopes this case “will shed light on the issue of contaminants.”
“Protocols need to be standardized,” Kazanjian says. “Testing, remediation, and post-remediation testing must be made mandatory. It needs to be a matter of policy so that insurers cannot refuse to pay for these essential steps.”
Displaced for over nine months, the family was forced to shuttle between Airbnbs and relatives’ homes. “Every day we would hear from our son, ‘When are we going home? When can I have my room back? When can we sit on our sofa?’ He would ask for his favorite toy. It was heartbreaking. And we didn’t have the answers. We didn’t know when we could go home. And still, we know we're the fortunate ones.”
Now that they’re back in their home, Kazanjian says, “We’ve been taking inventory of a life that we used to have while rebuilding and starting fresh. For so long, we couldn’t live here, couldn’t bring our children back. We were just trying to make it whole again, and our own insurance was preventing us from doing that. That was really hard.”
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