Farmers Insurance to honor San Diego County Firefighters at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Thuresday January 28 and Friday, January 29

Media is invited to interview firefighters at the Farmers Insurance Vehicles or tournament Media Tent located near the Hilton Torrey Pines entrance on Thursday January 28th and Friday January 29th.

SAN DIEGO, CA—(January 26, 2010)-- Farmers Insurance, title sponsor of the PGA tournament at Torrey Pines , welcomes and pays tribute to Firefighters from all of San Diego County this week. Local Firefighters will visit Farmers Mobile Claims Vehicles stationed at several locations on the Torrey Pines Golf Course. Firefighters will be available to provide preparedness and prevention information to interested visitors.

During the last two years Farmers Insurance and the San Diego County Fire Chiefs have joined forces and launched a massive, successful regional and united wildfire prevention and preparedness effort called “Before the Threat.” It involved reaching San Diego County homeowners in a door-to-door campaign.

“Once again Farmers Insurance has shown it’s commitment to San Diego County. Thanks to Farmers dedication to public safety, more than 300,000 preparedness and prevention DVD’s and preparedness information packets placed in doorhangers were delivered to County Residents in the high risk urban interface areas,” said August Ghio, President of the San Diego County Firefighters Association. “Farmers Insurance again shows its support to Firefighters by giving us yet another chance to communicate preparedness information to our residents.”

“We take great pride in having been the first insurance company on the ground and at the scene in helping the San Diego area rebuild following the 2007 devastating wildfires ,” said Woudstra. “We are honored to continue working hand-in-hand with the San Diego County Fire Chiefs and firefighters to actively support fire safety programs for the citizens of San Diego, and the state.”

"We couldn't be more pleased that Farmers Insurance Group of Companies has stepped forward to sponsor the tournament and lend tremendous assistance to the host organization, the Century Club of San Diego. This will help the Club meet its charitable objectives for this year," said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

“Farmers Insurance has a proud 82-year history of strong leadership and charitable giving,” said F. Robert Woudstra, Chief Executive Officer of Farmers. “Leaders step up and step in when opportunities arise and when needs are great. We clearly see the PGA sponsorship, and our work with the firefighters as an extension of our ongoing commitment to Southern California, the San Diego area and all the communities across the United States in which we serve our customers.”

Farmers is a trade name and may refer to Farmers Group, Inc. or the Farmers Exchanges, as the case may be. Farmers Group, Inc., a management and holding company, along with its subsidiaries, is wholly owned by the Zurich Financial Services Group. The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders, and managed by Farmers Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information about Farmers, visit our Web site at www.farmers.com.