Insurer Fights Payout on Illinois House That Exploded

An insurance company is fighting a claim on a Madison County, Ill., house that exploded last year, blaming a female occupant for the blast.

Madison Mutual Insurance Co.’s lawsuit in Edwardsville asks a judge to not require it to pay Laura Williams’ $509,000 claim over the February 2009 explosion that leveled her Pontoon Beach home.

The insurance company’s lawsuit alleges that Williams purposely disconnected a natural gas line to a water heater or plotted to have it done, then left the house before the explosion. The property was at the center of a complicated series of disputes in the Madison County courts.

The FBI is investigating.

Williams hasn’t been charged, and she didn’t return a message left at her O’Fallon home.

Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com