The Wisconsin Supreme Court determined that a fire damaging several properties arose from one occurrence. Secura Ins. v. Lyme St. Croix Forest Company, LLC., 2018 Wis. LEXIS 579 Oct. 30, 2018). 

    A fire broke out on forest land owned by Lyme St. Croix Forest Company. Known as the "Germann Road Fire," it burned 7, 442 acres over three days. Real and personal property belonging to many individuals and businesses were damaged. The fire allegedly began while equipment owned by Ray Duerr Logging, LLC was being repaired. Flames quickly spread from dry grass to a pile of recently felled trees and spread to the surrounding forest. 

    Secura insured Duerr under a CGL policy. The policy had a $2 million general aggregate policy limit and a $1 million per-occurrence limit. The policy also had a "Logging and Lumbering Operations Endorsement" with a $500,000 per-occurrence limit for property damage due to fire. 

    Secura filed suit for a declaratory judgment to determine its coverage obligations. Secura argued in its motion for partial summary judgment that the Germann Road Fire was a single occurrence. Therefore, the $500,000 policy limit from the endorsement applied rather than the $2 million aggregate limit. The circuit court rejected Secura's argument, finding that "each 'seepage' of fire onto another's property constituted a separate occurrence for purposes of the policy." The court of appeals affirmed, finding there was an occurrence each time the fire spead to a new piece of property and caused damage.

    On appeal, the Supreme Court noted that Wisconsin followed the "cause theory" in determining whether there was a single occurrence or multiple occurrences. Under the cause theory, where a single, uninterrupted cause resulted in all of the injuries and damage, there was one occurrence. Some jurisdictions followed the effect theory where each accident must be construed from the point of the view of the person whose property was damaged. Pursuant to the effect theory, there would be an occurrence when the separate property of each claimant was damaged. 

    The Supreme Court disagreed with the analysis of the court of appeals. If there was an occurrence each time a fire refueled and expanded, then a fire, which is constantly refueling and expanding, would result in an unfathomably large number of occurrences regardless of how many property lines it crossed. Therefore, the court concluded the Germann Road Fire constituted a single occurrence and the $500,000 per-occurrence limit applied to the property damage.