Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Should Upcoming California Commissioner’s Hearing on Wildfires Concern Insurers?
Oct 16 2020 // Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will convene a “virtual investigatory hearing” on Monday to initiate a series of regulatory actions that will protect residents from the increasing risk of wildfires. Several...
California Heat Wave Prompts Power Shutdowns, Wildfire Danger
Oct 16 2020 // More than 50,000 California utility customers were without power and others around the state were urged to conserve electricity Thursday amid a fall heat wave that brought another round of extreme wildfire danger. The...
RenaissanceRe Estimates Net Negative Impact of $325M from Q3 Natural Catastrophes
Oct 14 2020 // RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced it estimates that natural catastrophes during the third quarter of 2020 will have a net negative impact of approximately $325 million. The estimated net negative impact is primarily...
Oregon Easing Some Asbestos Rules to Speed Wildfire Cleanup
Oct 12 2020 // Oregon officials are relaxing some requirements for handling ash and debris containing asbestos to speed work in removing debris from homes and buildings destroyed by wildfires. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission...
Team Investigating Deadly California Wildfire Seizes PG&E Equipment
Oct 12 2020 // Fire investigators looking into what caused a wildfire that killed four people in far Northern California have taken possession of equipment belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility has reported. PG&E said in...
From Wildfires to Sally to China Floods, September Was a Disastrous Month
Oct 9 2020 // Third quarters are often the costliest of the year in terms natural disasters. Insurance broker Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred...
Washington Commissioner’s Climate Summit Highlighted Area, Global Vulnerabilities
Oct 8 2020 // “The insurance buying public wants to know that insurance is going to be available and affordable to them when they need it.” That was the take-home message from Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler,...
Rebuilding in Wildfire Zones: A One-Stop Shop for Wildfire Victims
Oct 6 2020 // California is on fire. Already this year, thousands of people have lost their homes, and communities are struggling to figure out how to rebuild. Nikki Pechet wants to be the person they turn to. Pechet co-founded...
California Commissioner Asks Insurers to Cover Wildfire Losses Sans Home Inventory
Oct 2 2020 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is asking insurance companies help wildfire survivors by providing up to 100% of personal property coverage limits without a detailed inventory to those who suffered a total...
Report: Nearly 2M Homes at Elevated Risk of Wildfire
Sep 30 2020 // Nearly 2 million homes, mostly in the Western U.S., with a rebuilding value of more than $638 billion are at an elevated risk of wildfire damage, a report out today shows. An annual wildfire report from data provider...
The Big Question Is Can U.S. Restrain Worsening Wildfires?
Sep 29 2020 // This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve pressing policy challenges. This conversation has been edited and condensed. Romesh Ratnesar: The American West is suffering through a...
Oregon Insurance Division Issues Amended Wildfire Emergency Order
Sep 28 2020 // The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services’ Division of Financial Regulation has issued an amended wildfire emergency order. The amended order means that insurance companies must immediately take steps...
Wildfire Forces Home, Hospital Evacuations in California’s Napa Valley Wine Area
Sep 28 2020 // A wind-driven wildfire erupted on Sunday in the heart of northern California’s Napa Valley wine country to spread across nearly 2,000 acres (809 hectares), forcing the evacuation of a hospital and hundreds of homes,...
Western Wildfires Taint Vineyards With Taste Of Smoke
Sep 25 2020 // Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation’s most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon and...
As Wildfires Spread, Public Safety Tech Startups Lack Venture Capitalists’ Backing
Sep 24 2020 // Silicon Valley’s innovation engine has been slow to produce useful new tools to help firefighters like Dave Winnacker extinguish the deadly blazes that each year fill California’s skies with smoke. Winnacker, a...
Oregon Issues Insurance Emergency Order for Wildfire Victims
Sep 23 2020 // The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services’ Division of Financial Regulation has issued an insurance emergency order for people affected by the state’s wildfires. Insurance companies must...
Few Resources, Old-Growth Forest Allowed Growth of California Wildfire
Sep 23 2020 // A lack of firefighting resources in the hours after it was sparked allowed a fast-moving wildfire to make an unprecedented run through Southern California mountains and eventually find fuel in old-growth trees to become...
Catastrophe Losses Driven Higher by Secondary Perils – And Climate Change
Sep 23 2020 // Secondary perils, exacerbated by climate change, are driving catastrophe insurance losses, warn a growing chorus of reinsurers and brokers. Indeed, broker Aon reveals that more than 60% of 2020’s insured catastrophe...
Tree on Power Line Apparent Start of Washington Fire
Sep 22 2020 // A tree that made contact with a power line apparently started a wildfire that burned dozens of homes in eastern Washington, according to a utility company. The fire burned the vast majority of homes in Malden and Pine...
California Wildfire Threatening More Than 1,000 Homes
Sep 22 2020 // A wildfire burning through brush and timber from the mountains to the desert northeast of Los Angeles threatened more than 1,000 homes on Tuesday as crews across the West battled dozens of other major blazes. The Bobcat...
