Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Wholesaler Conference Questions: Rising Premiums, Disruption, Disasters?
Jan 9 2018 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Surplus lines in California had a great year with more premium and more items, such as policies and endorsements sold. However, surplus lines brokers had to work harder for all that...
Wildfires Cost Montana $240M in Tourist Spending
Jan 8 2018 // A new report says summer fires cost the state of Montana $240 million in visitor spending. The report by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreational Research estimates that tourists spent...
California Commissioner Issues Report on Fire Insurance Availability Issues
Jan 4 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today released a report on the growing problem of homeowners fire insurance availability and affordability in many areas throughout the state. The report recommends changes in...
Top Insurance Journal West Stories of 2017
Dec 29 2017 // Trade secrets and Hippos, lawsuits and tragedies. The news for 2017 didn’t seem to be dominated by a single trend or sole event, but in an ever-fractured media world that must try and cater to short attention spans...
2017 ‘One of Worst’ for U.S. Weather with 15 Events Costing $1 Billion or More
Dec 29 2017 // In the year that President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris accord and downplayed global warming as a security threat, the U.S. received a harsh reminder of the perils of the rise in the planet’s temperature: a...
Wildfires Cost Montana $240M in Tourist Spending
Dec 27 2017 // A new report says summer fires cost the state of Montana $240 million in visitor spending. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported preliminary date released by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and...
California Commissioner Asks Insurers to Forego Detailed Home Inventories in Wake of Wildfires
Dec 21 2017 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is asking insurers to help California wildfire survivors by providing relief from detailed home inventories and to provide up to 100 percent of contents coverage limits without...
Microsoft Wants to Pit AI Against Climate Change
Dec 21 2017 // Red and green make yellow. And depending on how one feels about climate change, it could be considered a cautionary tale for the U.S. that China plans to create the world’s largest carbon market, possibly making it...
Catastrophe Bond Managers Put Hurricanes Behind Them, Plan New Launches
Dec 20 2017 // Hedge funds and other managers of catastrophe bond funds racked up some of the worst losses in more than a decade from this year’s hurricanes and wildfires. But a year that is shaping up to be the costliest on record...
Calm Winds Aid Firefighters in Making Progress on California Fire
Dec 19 2017 // Crews are using a break in winds to do a controlled burn to remove dry brush and build containment lines around Southern California’s Thomas Fire. Fire spokesman Capt. Rick Crawford said Tuesday that officials will...
House Republicans Eye Disaster Aid, Short-Term Funding Bill
Dec 19 2017 // House Republicans agreed Monday on $81 billion in disaster relief for areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires, the largest standalone aid bill in recent years, according to a document provided by a Republican lawmaker. The...
Homeowners Fear Losing Insurance in Midst of California Fires
Dec 18 2017 // California homeowners and regulators have a new fear about wildfires ravaging the state: that insurers will drop coverage. Massive, out-of-season fires in northern and southern California are causing billions of dollars in...
California Wildfire Claims Top $9.4B, Department of Insurance Says
Dec 18 2017 // California Commissioner Dave Jones announced in early December that the total of insured losses from the wildfires in California in October had topped $9.4 billion in residential and commercial claims. That figure is near...
Insurance Industry Week of Giving Set Records in Midst of Catastrophes
Dec 18 2017 // Hundreds of volunteers from the insurance industry descended on the National Veterans cemeteries in October in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth to assist with maintenance and cleanup. Volunteers in Chicago from several...
The Road to a Rebound After 2017 Storms, Wildfires: Fitch
Dec 18 2017 // U.S. property/casualty insurers will rebound in 2018 from the late-2017 onslaught of hurricanes and wildfires, but it will take a while to return to “significant underwriting profits,” Fitch Ratings predicted...
Tougher Utility Rules Being Considered in Wake of California Wildfires
Dec 15 2017 // California utilities may face tougher safety rules for power lines, phone lines and utility poles in parts of the state most prone to wildfires. Under the proposed rules being considered by the California Public Utilities...
Winds Kick up Fire Threat from California Wildfires
Dec 15 2017 // Dry, gusting winds are aggravating fire worries across much of central and western California, including those areas where infernos are still raging and places that were scorched in October, the U.S. Storm Prediction...
Farmers Reports $1.2B in Claims from Northern California Wildfires
Dec 15 2017 // Farmers Insurance reported it has received more than 4,000 claims from the Northern California wildfires to date at an estimated gross cost of $1.2 billion. With reinsurance, the Los Angeles-based carrier estimates its...
200 Homes Evacuated as South Dakota Wildfire Grows
Dec 14 2017 // Strong winds are fanning the flames of a growing wildfire in South Dakota, pushing the fire beyond the borders of the Custer State Park and prompting new evacuations. Custer County Emergency Management director Mike Carter...
Verisk: 96% of the Area in California Fire at High or Extreme Wildfire Risk
Dec 13 2017 // Most of the area within the massive Thomas fire in Southern California is at high or extreme wildfire risk, according to a Verisk report on Wednesday. The fire encompasses more than 230,500 acres, and while containment on...
