Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Disaster Insurance Act Passes Key Committee
Mar 26 2019 // Legislation by that could lead California to consider buying insurance in the private market to cover rapidly increasing costs of fighting wildfires due to climate change cleared a key committee vote Tuesday. Senate Bill...
California to Waive Environmental Rules to Prep for Wildfire Season
Mar 26 2019 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom has moved to bypass environmental regulations to prepare for the next wildfire season, a move he said was necessary to prevent further loss of life even as it frustrated activists in a state...
PG&E Pushes Back on Judge’s Proposals to Prevent Wildfires
Mar 25 2019 // Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is pushing back on a U.S. judge’s revised proposals to prevent the utility’s equipment from causing more wildfires, saying it could not “monitor every tree at every moment...
FEMA Gave Private Contractor Personal Data on 2.3 Million Hurricane, Wildfire Survivors
Mar 25 2019 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency wrongly released to a contractor the personal information of 2.3 million survivors of devastating 2017 hurricanes and wildfires, potentially exposing the victims to identity fraud...
Burning Down a House to Show How to Build for Wildfire Defense
Mar 20 2019 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv After only a year into his job as CEO and president of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, Roy Wright is setting the place on fire. The IBHS conducted a demonstration in...
$3M Grant for California Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program
Mar 18 2019 // The California Fire Safe Council in partnership with the Watershed Research and Training Center has been awarded a $3 million grant, part of which is to help improve wildfire resiliency. The Regional Forest and Fire...
Consumer Advocacy in an Age of Consumer, Insurer Options
Mar 18 2019 // Today’s Insurance Consumer Advocates Are Tackling Some New and Old Issues Years ago, insurance consumer advocates in the states were most often focused on getting consumers access to insurance at fair prices. They...
Deadly 2017 California Wildfire Found Sparked by Edison Power Lines
Mar 14 2019 // The devastating Thomas Fire that killed two people and destroyed more than 1,000 structures northwest of Los Angeles in December 2017 was sparked by power lines owned by Southern California Edison Co , fire officials said...
Aon, Insurtech Zesty.ai Partner to Enhance Property Underwriting with AI Data
Mar 13 2019 // Aon has formed a strategic alliance with Zesty.ai, a San Francisco-based insurtech startup, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance insurers’ property underwriting. Zesty.ai’s technology provides...
Forest Management After Fires a Focus for California Agency
Mar 7 2019 // After successive years of devastating wildfires, California’s fire agency has announced a plan that would dramatically increase the removal of dead trees and other forest management efforts with the help of the...
Wildfires Threaten Towns in Rural Southeast Australia
Mar 7 2019 // More homes were being threatened Tuesday [March 5] by wildfires that have burned dozens of homes and buildings in rural southeast Australia. Victoria state Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said emergency...
Judge Orders PG&E Compliance With Fire-Safety Laws
Mar 6 2019 // A federal judge is requiring PG&E Corp. to abide by rules governing how the utility operates its power lines in California, seeking to reform what he described as “dismal” management that led to a series of...
Opinion: California’s Wildfires Burn Our Climate Illusions
Mar 4 2019 // Joan Didion’s “Holy Water,” written in 1977, is a paean to the elaborate engineering that supplied her taps in Malibu and filled drinking glasses in Hollywood restaurants. At its heart is a warning: The...
Insurer Group Warns on Property Losses Due to Climate Change
Feb 27 2019 // Insurers are increasingly worried that rising temperatures will lead to a slump in property values that could spark broader financial turmoil. Those were the conclusions a group run out of the University of Cambridge...
Thousands of Lawsuits Demanding PG&E Pay for Damages from Wildfires
Feb 18 2019 // Some 1,000 lawsuits have been filed since late 2017 demanding Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation pay for damages caused by wildfires. The lawsuits represent thousands of people, companies, cities and counties affected...
Predicting Path of Spreading Wildfires
Feb 18 2019 // A University of Missouri researcher is teaming up with scholars in Kansas and Georgia to develop drone technology to monitor and potentially predict the spread of wildfires. The $1.2 million project will use drones to...
California Weighs Buying Disaster Insurance Policy to Cover Wildfire Costs
Feb 14 2019 // California’s insurance commissioner and a lawmaker want to the state to consider buying insurance in the private market to cover rapidly increasing costs of fighting wildfires due to climate change. State Sen. Bill...
Firefighters Gain Upper Hand over New Zealand Wildfires; Evacuees Return Home
Feb 12 2019 // About 3,000 people who fled as a wildfire threatened a New Zealand town were allowed to return home Monday [Feb. 11] as firefighting conditions improved. Another 400 residents living in valleys near the fire aren’t...
Firefighters Endangered During California Blaze, New Report Shows
Feb 11 2019 // Poor communication, short staffing and infighting among agencies may have endangered firefighters who nearly died during the massive Mendocino Complex of wildfires in Northern California, according to a new report...
Another California Utility One Wildfire Away From Ruin
Feb 11 2019 // The warning couldn’t have been clearer. As PG&E Corp. plunged into bankruptcy last month, S&P Global Ratings slashed credit grades almost to junk status for California’s two other big electric...
