Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Last Year’s Wine Country Fires in California Leave Homeowners Struggling
Aug 29 2018 // Construction crews have already put up the frame on Cheri Sharp’s new house, but she still questions whether rebuilding was the right choice after California’s most destructive wildfire took her old home in...
Wildfire Insurance Bill Signed by California Governor
Aug 28 2018 // California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law a bill that is intended to combat what are believed underinsurance issues revealed by 2017 wildfires. AB 1797 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Marin County, is expected to...
Report Shows California Wildfires, Climate Change Altering Insurance Landscape
Aug 27 2018 // Insurers may be non-renewing more in wildfire-prone areas of California, sending an increasing number of people to the residual market or to surplus lines insurers. A report released on Monday shows that market shares of...
California’s Plan to Help Utilities Deal With Fire Costs
Aug 27 2018 // California lawmakers outlined a proposal to help PG&E Corp. and other utilities cope with billions of dollars of potential damages from deadly wildfires that ravaged the state last year. The plan, part of a broad...
Germany Wildfire Southwest of Berlin Detonates Buried WWII Ammunition
Aug 27 2018 // Firefighters struggled Friday to tame a wildfire southwest of Berlin but had to maneuver carefully as the blaze set off old World War II ammunition that is still buried in the forests around the German capital. Flames...
Extreme Weather Risk Grows as Warming Earth Disrupts High-Altitude Winds: Study
Aug 21 2018 // Scorching summer heatwaves and downpours are set to become more extreme in the northern hemisphere as global warming makes weather patterns linger longer in the same place, scientists said on Monday. They said there was a...
California’s Plan for PG&E Bonds to Cover Fire Damages in Final Stages
Aug 20 2018 // California is finalizing the details of a plan that could let PG&E Corp. issue bonds to cover potential damages from wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes last year. The details are still being worked out, and a...
Jury Rules Nevada Liable for 2017 Wildfire That Burned 23 Homes
Aug 20 2018 // A jury has found the Nevada Division of Forestry liable for the loss of 23 homes and 17 other buildings in a 2016 wildfire after strong winds re-ignited a prescribed burn. The verdict set the stage for future court...
Dry Fall And Worsening Drought in Oregon Portends Wildfires
Aug 20 2018 // A climate prediction report issued by the National Weather Service says Oregon will remain hot, dry and smoky well into autumn this year. The Statesman Journal reported that forecast in the report released last week means...
Changes in California Fire-Liability Law Looking Less Likely
Aug 20 2018 // California utilities won’t get a break from lawmakers who were weighing changes to state liability laws that expose the companies to billions in potential damages from last year’s wildfires. Lawmakers...
AIR Worldwide Updates Wildfire Model with Event-Based Risk Management Approach
Aug 17 2018 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) has released an updated Wildfire Model for the United States designed to provide a comprehensive view of the risk of wildfire to property within the 13 westernmost...
Global Insured Catastrophe Losses Decline to $20 Billion in H1: Swiss Re
Aug 16 2018 // Global insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters during the first half of 2018 were US$20 billion, down from US$30 billion in H1 2017, according to Swiss Re Institute’s latest sigma study. On...
2018 Wildfire Season Outpacing 2017
Aug 15 2018 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Examining the Risk in French Gulch and Redding Less than a year ago, California was ablaze with some of the most catastrophic fires the United States has seen. Over 10...
Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation Creates California Wildfire Disaster Relief Fund
Aug 15 2018 // The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a nonprofit organization that unites the insurance industry in helping communities and enriching lives through grants, volunteer service and leadership, has announced...
Fires May Make It Harder for Homeowners to Get Insurance in California
Aug 14 2018 // California homeowners may find themselves facing insurance headaches even if their houses weren’t affected by this year’s blazes. The California Department of Insurance had already warned this year that the...
To Date, Wildfires Are Burning 3 Times More of California Than in 2017
Aug 14 2018 // California’s wildfires are now burning through land at a pace more than three times faster than last year’s blazes. About 4,200 fires have charred 726,000 acres (294,000 hectares) in the state so far this year,...
Facing $17B in Fire Damages, PG&E CEO Blames Climate Change
Aug 13 2018 // It was California’s biggest fire yet. In late July and August, wildfires devastated an area north of San Francisco far bigger than New York City, destroying more than 100 homes and injuring two fire fighters....
Church Mutual, Church & Casualty Pilot Wildfire Loss Prevention Program in California
Aug 10 2018 // Church Mutual Insurance Company and Church & Casualty Insurance Agency have launched CM Wildfire Solutions, a no-cost, multifaceted program to keep customers and their property safe from the devastation of...
July’s Droughts, Wildfires, Floods Caused Billions in Global Economic Losses: Aon
Aug 10 2018 // Many countries across the globe saw worsening in drought-related and wildfire conditions during July, which have led to hundreds of deaths and created a significant financial impact – particularly in the agriculture,...
Cost of Fighting Wildfires in Oregon Far Ahead of Last Year’s Pace
Aug 10 2018 // The estimated cost of fighting Oregon wildfires this summer stands at more than $180 million. That’s $30 million more than at the same time last year. The Mail Tribune reported that 75 percent of those dollars have...
