Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Solutions to Wildfires in Time of Climate Change Are Costly, Unpopular
Nov 14 2018 // California’s deadly wildfires have a straightforward solution, experts say: stop building homes in places that are likely to burn — and make homes that already exist in those areas a whole lot tougher. That...
How Insurance Industry Might React to ‘New Normal’ of California’s Historic Wildfires
Nov 13 2018 // The “new normal” for California has yielded another year of record wildfires and billions of dollars in insured losses. Homeowners insurance rates inch up in high risk areas, and carriers get more cautious...
Will California See More Laws and Regulations in Wake of Wildfires?
Nov 13 2018 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Last year’s California wildfires destroyed thousands of homes and cost billions of dollars, but they also created numerous new laws and regulations in their wake as Legislators and...
California Utilities Face Potential of Billion Dollar Wildfires Year After Year
Nov 13 2018 // California utilities are facing the very real possibility that billion-dollar blazes could become an annual occurrence, and they don’t know how to pay for them. Shares of the state’s two largest utilities...
Insurers’ Firefighting Teams Move to Limit Damage from California Wildfires
Nov 13 2018 // California’s raging wildfires are so bad that American International Group Inc. and Chubb Ltd. are deploying teams of specialists and former firefighters to spray retardants on homes. The season may soon rank among...
California Wildfire Insured Losses at Billions of Dollars and Climbing
Nov 12 2018 // An analysis by catastrophe modeler RMS shows 15 wildfires are burning more than 280,000 acres in California have collectively destroyed nearly 7,000 homes and businesses and killed 31 people. Roughly 300,000 have been...
Deaths, Damages Continue to Rise in California’s Most Destructive Wildfires
Nov 12 2018 // The most destructive wildfires in California’s history have killed at least 31 people and forced tens of thousands more to evacuate as firefighters struggle to gain control amid swirling winds. The so-called Camp...
California Wildfire Update: Thousands Flee, More Than 50K Without Power
Nov 9 2018 // Fanned by hot, dry winds, wildfires north of San Francisco and near Los Angeles have forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 people in the state, including Malibu, the coastal enclave of the rich and famous. The fires...
California Wildfire Grows to More than 20K Acres, More Blazes Erupt
Nov 9 2018 // A wildfire raging in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada foothills quadrupled in size late Thursday and another day of dry winds threatens to make it spread even farther, faster. The blaze near the community of Chico...
Power Customers in California File Claims in Pre-Emptive Wildfire Outage
Nov 2 2018 // A Northern California utility received 146 demands for reimbursement from customers who say Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s controversial decision to cut power to prevent wildfires hurt them economically. The...
Court Limits Insurer’s Payout in Massive Wisconsin Wildfire
Oct 31 2018 // The state Supreme Court is limiting an insurance company’s payout in a massive northwestern Wisconsin wildfire. Logging equipment owned by Ray Duerr Logging LLC sparked the Germann Road Fire in Douglas County in May...
Weather, Wildfire Claims an Increasing Share of Home Insurance Losses
Oct 31 2018 // U.S homeowners insurers saw an increase in both the number of losses and the percentage of those losses that resulted from an extreme weather event during 2017. According to a LexisNexis Home Trends report, loss costs...
Utah Firefighting Costs This Year a Record $110M
Oct 19 2018 // Utah State Forester Brian Cottam says the state’s wildfire season appears to be over and that it is adding up to be Utah’s most expensive ever. KSL-TV reported that Cottam told the Utah Executive Appropriations...
California Utility Cuts Power to Dampen Wildfire Threat
Oct 15 2018 // California’s largest public utility cut off electric power to about 60,000 customers in an unprecedented move to prevent wildfires such as those that erupted in the state’s wine country last fall, as high winds...
Montana Homes in Fire-Prone Areas Hike Firefighting Costs, Report Shows
Oct 15 2018 // Rapid population growth and the desire to live near forests means new housing in western Montana is being built in wildfire-prone areas, increasing taxpayer-funded fire suppression liabilities and putting lives and...
California Bracing for High Winds, Increased Wildfire Danger
Oct 15 2018 // Potentially powerful winds combined with dry weather are raising the threat of wildfires in California. State firefighters say they are preparing for potential extreme fire weather early in the week. The National Weather...
Nevada Board Says $3.8M More Needed to Fight Wildfires
Oct 12 2018 // The Nevada Board of Examiners has recommended approval of an additional $3.8 million to cover the cost of fighting wildfires this past summer. The Nevada Appeal reports state forester Kacey KC told the board Tuesday more...
Oregon Wildfire Costs This Year Hit Record of $514M
Oct 12 2018 // New data shows the cost of fighting wildfires in Oregon reached an all-time high $514.6 million in 2018. According to data from Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, Oregon’s costs skyrocketed past last...
Washington Lands Commissioner Wants $55M for Wildfires
Oct 12 2018 // Washington’s Public Lands Commissioner wants lawmakers to increase the amount of money that the state spends to fight wildfires and prevent future blazes. Hilary Franz, who oversees the Department of Natural...
Woes of California Wildfire Victims Include Cleanup Crews, Fraud
Oct 11 2018 // One year after a devastating series of wildfires ripped through Northern California wine country, destroying thousands of homes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ first experience cleaning up after a wildfire has...
