Altadena Homeowners Sue Farmers Insurance, Testing Firm Over Eaton Fire Smoke Claims

Two Altadena property owners have filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Farmers Insurance and the environmental testing firm it hired of conducting shoddy smoke-damage assessments after the Eaton Fire, then using those findings to avoid paying for proper cleanup of toxic contamination.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, targets Fire Insurance Exchange, a Farmers Insurance entity, and Hygiene Technologies International, a Torrance-based industrial hygiene firm. It is one of at least two cases — including another involving a Pasadena duplex — that take the novel approach of suing both the insurer and the third-party testing company over how post-fire contamination was evaluated, according to a Law.com report on the litigation.

“Farmers Insurance and HygieneTech’s failure to uphold their obligations under the policy is not just a matter of negligence, it’s a case of deliberate bad faith practices that have caused real harm to our clients,” said Michelle Meyers, a partner at Singleton Schreiber and the plaintiffs’ attorney, in a Feb. 23, 2026, press release announcing the lawsuit.

More than a year after the Eaton Fire, thousands of homeowners whose properties survived the flames are locked in disputes with insurers over whether their homes are contaminated and what it will cost to fix them.

“This is a huge issue (affecting) thousands of people,” said Joy Chen, chief executive officer of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.

The class action lawsuit alleges that Hygiene Technologies International performed inspections that did not meet environmental hygiene industry standards and produced reports that understated contamination, according to Singleton Schreiber. Insurers then allegedly used those reports to deny or limit remediation payments, the lawsuit claims.

In a second, separate lawsuit also filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Pasadena duplex owners Jonathan Allen and Bridget Killian allege that Environmental Consulting Industries, a Chino-based firm hired by American Family Insurance, sent an unlicensed worker to collect samples but listed a different, certified technician on the official report, according to the Pasadena Star-News. That case raises similar claims of substandard testing used to reduce insurer payouts.

The Ghazarian v. Fire Insurance Exchange case appears on the docket of Judge David S. Cunningham III in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The case is in its early stages; no trial date has been set.