MORA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – The federal government is settling lawsuits and paying out millions more to several of the victims of New Mexico’s most destructive wildfire.
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After two years of fighting for his clients, Attorney Brian Colón said ‘the page has been turned’ under new leadership at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA
“What we know is that the claims process before Director Mitchell literally retraumatized northern New Mexico,” said Colón.
Brian Colón, managing partner at Singleton Schreiber says under Jay Mitchell, a new FEMA director for New Mexico’s joint recovery office, wildfire victims are seeing more movement, getting compensation for their losses in the government-sparked Hermits Peak Calf canyon Wildfires in 2022.
“It put those victims through far more of a difficult procedure than was necessary or required,” said Colón.
Colón’s firm has been working for the past couple of years to resolve these claims, but for the first year and a half, he says the process was too slow. The federal government set aside nearly $4 billion to repay victims. And FEMA announced Thursday that seven lawsuits that were pending in federal court, have now been resolved.
They also shared that this will allow the Claims Office to be more efficient, speeding up the process of getting funds paid to victims.
While Colón is reassured, he said they still have a lot of work to do. “We continue to advocate for all the victims to be able to recover non-economic damages. That continues to be a portion of the lawsuits that are pending,” said Colón.
As of Thursday, the FEMA claims office has paid 318 claims to victims with lawyers, totaling $162.9 million. More than a thousand claims are still pending.
“At the end of the day, there’s nothing more important than rebuilding and providing hope and compensation to the people of northern New Mexico who have been traumatized by the federal government,” said Colón.
As of Thursday, the FEMA claims office said it has paid out $996.6 million to claimants. Both Colón and FEMA urge those affected by the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Wildfire to file a claim to FEMA’s claims office before November 14th. Please visit the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office website at fema.gov/hermits-peak. For information in Spanish, visit fema.gov/es/hermits-peak.
