Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
$370M Settlement Reached Over Southern California Wildfires
Dec 5 2012 // An electrical contractor and tree-trimming company have agreed to pay $370 million to settle lawsuits over Southern California wildfires that swept San Diego County in 2007. U-T San Diego says PAR Electric and Davey Tree...
Official Urges Collaboration On Wildfire Projects in West
Dec 3 2012 // As the western U.S. comes off a tough wildfire season, more collaboration is needed to guard against catastrophic fires and to restore charred forests and rangeland, a senior federal official said at a Western...
Wildfires, Hail Take Toll On Colorado Home Insurance
Nov 27 2012 // Colorado now ranks among the top 10 for the highest share of homeowners insurance claims paid out due to catastrophes. The Insurance Research Council says catastrophes triggered only 26 percent of the claims made on...
Colorado Springs Wildfire Expected to Create Jobs
Nov 19 2012 // Economists say a wildfire that burned 346 homes and scorched 28 square miles in the Colorado Springs area over the summer could provide an economic boost over the next five years. Claims for the contents and homes damaged...
Wildfires Will Cost Wyoming Over $40M
Nov 14 2012 // State Forester Bill Crapser says this year’s wildfires have consumed all the money the state had set aside for fire suppression. Crapser says the season depleted both the state’s entire fire suppression...
Arizona Judge Oks $3.7M In Restitution For Wildfire
Nov 13 2012 // A judge says two cousins who accidentally started the largest wildfire in Arizona history will have to pay more than $3.7 million in restitution. The amount covers the loss of homes and other property, cleanup from the...
Colorado Springs Wildfire Expected To Create Jobs
Nov 7 2012 // Economists say a wildfire that burned 346 homes and scorched 28 square miles in the Colorado Springs area over the summer could provide an economic boost over the next five years. Insurance claims for the contents and...
Native Seed Shortage Hampers Nevada, Utah Wildfire Recovery
Oct 30 2012 // High demand for native plant seeds in Nevada and Utah is pushing up the price and leaving short supplies following an extreme wildfire year that burned millions of acres nationally. In the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah,...
2012 Fire Season Among Worst On Record In Wyoming
Oct 25 2012 // This year’s wildfire season was among the most destructive on record in Wyoming, with as many as 1,400 wildfires charring more than a half-million acres, state forester Bill Crapser said. Normally Wyoming will see...
Billboards in Oklahoma Warn of Contractor Fraud
Oct 22 2012 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) have teamed up to warn residents in the state’s wildfire disaster zones about contractor fraud. The department and the NICB are using...
Colorado Giving $1.3 Million For Wildfire Recovery
Oct 14 2012 // Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is providing $1.3 million for recovery in the Lower North Fork Fire burn area. Hickenlooper says the funding announced Friday can be used to pay for such things as removing burned trees in...
Utah Lawmaker Mulls Climate Concerns in Wildfire Bill
Oct 9 2012 // At the request of a youth group, a Republican Utah lawmaker plans to address concerns about climate change in a bill dealing with wildfires. State Rep. Kraig Powell of Heber City has requested the drafting of legislation...
Studies: More Than 2 M California Homes Exposed To Wildfires; Hundreds of Thousands in West at ‘Very High Risk’
Oct 8 2012 // More than 2 million homes in California face “extreme wildfire hazards,” over 400,000 of which are in Los Angeles County, according to a study from an insurance industry group. A separate study shows at least...
Report Points to Insurance Industry’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
Oct 8 2012 // A report out late last month urges the insurance industry to act to protect itself and the community against the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change. In short, the report, its authors and those...
11 Homes Destroyed in NW Minnesota Wildfire
Oct 5 2012 // State officials now say 11 homes and 24 other structures were destroyed by the wildfire that threatened the northwestern Minnesota city town of Karlstad. Jean Goad, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center,...
CDI Settles Enforcement Action Over Wildfire Claims
Sep 26 2012 // The California Department of Insurance has settled with the New Hampshire Insurance Company and its authorized agent York Risk Services Group Inc. for claims processing. The $285,000 settlement is a result of New Hampshire...
SoCal Fire is Reminder Worst Could be Ahead
Sep 25 2012 // A 4-square-mile wildfire in a rural San Diego County community has destroyed roughly a dozen homes and has left one man dead, a sober reminder the state has a large number of high risk homes and that Southern...
Report: Wildfires Pose Risk to Three Quarter-Million Western U.S. Homes
Sep 24 2012 // More than three-quarters of a million homes in the Western U.S. have a high risk of wildfire damage, according to a report released by Santa Ana, Calif.-based CoreLogic. CoreLogic’s Wildfire Hazard Risk Report...
Chartis Private Client Group Expands, Enhances Wildfire Protection Unit
Sep 21 2012 // Chartis has enhanced its Private Client Group’s Wildfire Protection Unit with geographic expansion and improved monitoring technologies. The unit now is available to clients in additional areas of Colorado. The...
Report Points to Insurance Industry’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
Sep 20 2012 // A report out Thursday urges the insurance industry to act to protect itself and the community against the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change. In short, the report, its authors and those endorsing...
