NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — David Fauls didn’t think twice about running toward the flames to help when his neighbor’s house exploded in December of 2023. Now it’s Fauls who says he needs help getting the damage to his own home repaired in the wake of that blast, and he says he feels betrayed by his insurance company.
Watch Heather's full investigation below:
From Orion Township to Detroit to Southgate, Southeast Michigan has experienced several home explosions recently.
These explosions can kill, and they can turn peaceful neighborhoods into chaos.
Related Story: Police provide update on massive house explosion in Northfield Township
“Everybody screamed, everybody ducked,” said Fauls.
On December 30, 2023, David Fauls and his wife, Marie, were hosting a birthday party for their youngest daughter at their home in Northfield Township.
“I happened to be in the basement with some of the kids playing pool,” said Fauls. “I just heard this unexplainably massive sound.”
WATCH: Video shows scene shortly after house explosion in Northfield Township
Fauls says the blast was so powerful he felt his whole house shake.
“I looked out and I could see the mushroom cloud. I could see the debris everywhere. I didn't know what to do, so my instinct just kicked in,” Fauls told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
Fauls and his other neighbors ran to help Richard Pruden, whose house had just exploded. The blast injured Pruden and his grandson, Stephen, and sadly killed Pruden’s daughter, her husband and their two other children.
“I remember audibly saying out loud to everybody, ‘where's the house,’” said Fauls. “And we're in such shock and I remember out loud just going, ‘there's no house.’ And at that point we could hear [Pruden] and I still hear the sound of his voice from that day,” said Fauls.
RELATED STORY: Friends share memories of four family members killed in house explosion
Fauls says his heart still breaks for Pruden and his family. After trying to process the trauma after that terrible day, Fauls says he also started to notice some damage that his own home sustained because of the blast.
“I’ve got to get past the emotion and trauma of this thing and then try to deal with this,” said Fauls. “Every single day we just found something else, and we just kept seeing more and more [damage].”
The power of the explosion sent debris flying and was felt by families all over the area.
WATCH: Chickens react to sound of house explosion a half-mile away
“Debris was flying over my house, here – a mile away,” said neighbor Scott McMillan at the time of the explosion. “It was scary. By the time I decided to get up and I was reasonably safe, I watched a wave go across that lake.”
“The Sheriffs are here, they were at Jackson and Zeeb road—they heard the explosion there, 9 miles away,” said Northfield Township Police Lt. David Powell the day of the blast.
Fauls lives just 600 feet away and he says in the weeks after the tragedy, he found everything from split moldings to cracks in his foundation walls.
“The entire door flexed in, the entire wall probably, but the entire door,” said Fauls about the door wall in his lower level. Fauls says at least 10 of his windows now have significant damage and fog up repeatedly.
“You can already see how hard it is to see out of this,” said Fauls as he showed the 7 Investigators the damaged windows.
Repair estimates for Fauls’ foundation totaled $23,745 and the estimate for the windows totaled $44,256. So Fauls says he decided to contact his homeowner's insurance for help. But he says AAA’s Auto Club Insurance Association claim representative never came to his house to check out the damage.
“He refused. He just would never step on site. He would not get involved. He would not try and see the damages,” said Fauls.
Instead, Fauls said Auto Club Insurance sent a forensic engineer from Nederveld.
“He was very dismissive when he first came in,” said Fauls.
In the Nederveld report, the engineer said the cracks in Fauls’ foundation and the damage to his windows were age-related and not the result of the massive explosion.
According to records from Auto Club Group, they only covered $20,223 in damages for the cracked paint and drywall throughout the house. Records show they would not cover the foundation or window repairs.
“I see a report that's telling me the plastic broken in between my windowpanes is age-related deterioration. When a concussive force rocked this house and I watched that, and now there’s discoloring and you can't see out these windows. I'm like, OK, this is craziness. This is not just unprofessional, it's absurd,” said Fauls.
Despite pleas to his insurance company to cover the remaining $68,000 in damages, Fauls says his requests for them to cover the damages were denied.
“We're paying the premiums, we're making sure we're covered, and this is how they're playing it,” said Fauls.
Fauls even filed a complaint with Michigan’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services... along with 61 other customers across Michigan in 2024 who complained to the state about AAA’s homeowner’s insurance products. The Auto Club Group and Auto Club Insurance Association had the 5th highest number of homeowners insurance complaints state-wide last year.
In a statement about the Fauls claim, a spokesman for Auto Club Group said, “ACIA takes all homeowner claims seriously…” and “…as a matter of common practice given the nature of the reported damage, [we] engaged an independent, licensed engineering firm for expert evaluation.”
The spokesman says they use forensic engineers on a “case-by-case” basis.
“They do it all the time,” said attorney Ven Johnson. Johnson says insurance companies are relying on these outside engineering reports more and more frequently.
“That's why it's really important that as soon as possible after the explosion, you get experts, more than one, on both sides or all sides depending on how many different folks are involved, to look at this and analyze what happened,” said Johnson.
The Auto Club Group spokesman says they stand by the integrity of their process, but David Fauls says this process has jeopardized his family’s financial future.
“No family should have to go into debt or break the bank to get the coverage that they're paying for insurance to cover,” said Fauls.
The 7 Investigators have called and emailed Nederveld repeatedly, but no one has responded to comment on this.
Here is the full statement from the Auto Club Group (AAA):
STATEMENT FROM THE AUTO CLUB INSURANCE ASSOCIATION
"The Auto Club Insurance Association (ACIA), as subsidiary of the Auto Club Group, takes all homeowner claims seriously, thoroughly investigating each to ensure fair and fact-based outcomes. In the case of Mr. Fauls, ACIA promptly assigned a staff claim specialist and, as a matter of common practice given the nature of the reported damage, engaged an independent, licensed engineering firm—Nederveld, Inc.—for expert evaluation.
While we regret that an in-person inspection by the ACIA claims specialist could not be scheduled immediately due to availability conflicts, we ensured the property was professionally assessed by an independent structural engineer– again as commonly practiced.
ACIA partially approved Mr. Fauls’s claim and issued payment for damages determined to be related to a nearby home explosion that occurred in 2023. However, there was a portion of the claim in which coverage could not be afforded based on the expert engineering findings, which concluded that the damages in question were not attributable to that same incident but were consistent with normal age-related wear and tear.
We stand by the integrity of the process and appreciate the opportunity to clarify the facts."
Additional questions from the 7 Investigators for AAA:
How often is AAA using outside forensic engineering firms on claims?
As is industry practice, ACIA engages independent engineering firms when additional expert analysis is needed to accurately assess complex or specialized damage as in this case. These firms are used on a case-by-case basis to ensure we’re making fair, thorough, and informed decisions for our policyholders. In this case, the firm found damage in multiple rooms in the home related to the explosion and we provided coverage.
Do you only use Nederveld?
No, ACIA uses a variety of independent firms.
Does Nederveld ever agree with the homeowner or do they typically recommend you deny claims? Online reviews suggest they rarely agree with the homeowner and the homeowner's experts regarding damage.
The engineering firms ACIA engages are independent, third-party experts who conduct their own assessments based on the facts and evidence relative to each claim. Their role is to provide objective analysis to help ensure that claim decisions are accurate and fair.
Engineers have to abide by a code of ethics; if AAA is the customer of the forensic engineer, how is this ethical situation explained to policy holders/homeowners?
ACIA maintains that the engineering firms it works with provide independent, fair, and accurate assessments based upon their expertise and the facts and evidence relative to each claim.
If you have a story for Heather Catallo, please email her at hcatallo@wxyz.com