Allianz last night estimated that total industry insured losses from the Victorian bush fires could reach half a billion dollars.Nicholas Scofield, general manager corporate affairs said everyone at Allianz was pulling out all stops to provide assistance as quickly as possible to customers and business partners.By last night Allianz had received nearly 220 claims with a value of more than $15 million and expected to receive many more over coming days and weeks."We have already made a number of emergency payments to customers and these funds were transferred to customers' bank accounts today," he said.As part of the Event Response Plan, Allianz has initiated a dedicated event team in its Victorian claims unit to deal exclusively with affected customers and has additional claims consultants assisting from around Australia to ensure response to customers' needs as quickly as possible.Allianz is working together with its loss adjusting partners Crawfords and GAB Robins, to ensure priority service for affected customers. Additional staff have been allocated to this event and, where possible, assessors have already travelled to impacted areas.Allianz is fast-tracking emergency payments where required to assist customers through the initial period, when they may need money for food and clothing."Total insured losses across the whole industry will be in the many hundreds of millions of dollars and could well reach half a billion dollars," Scofield said.Insurance News Australia