With wildfire damage on the forefront of everyone's mind since January's devastating Los Angeles disasters, insurance businesses around the country are beginning to rethink their wildfire coverage plans. As our climate grows warmer and warmer, no doubt adding fuel to the wildfire problem in the future, losing insurance protection could prove disastrous for homeowners everywhere.
What's happening?
As one Redditor in the r/Bend subreddit explained, home insurers are beginning to drop wildfire coverage for properties with any level of risk, even outside of California. Since the user's property in Bend, Oregon, had recorded a wildfire risk score of 22 out of 50, Progressive Insurance decided to terminate this client's policy.
Even wildfire protection measures — such as fireproofing your home with fire-resistant materials — can't help from a coverage perspective, the Redditor continued, quoting the notice they received from their insurer.
"While we encourage you to take steps to reduce your property's wildfire risk," the notice read, "any mitigation actions you take will unlikely change your wildfire risk score."
Why is the loss of wildfire coverage concerning?
As our planetary temperatures rise as a result of heat-trapping pollution, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense. According to NASA, wildfires have been consuming more and more land over the past 30 years, with fire season increasing in duration as a whole.
While wildfires and other extreme weather phenomena are naturally occurring, NASA describes the processes as "supercharged by humans," with wildfires compounded by the lower amounts of rainfall during these drier and drier fire seasons.
If insurers can no longer cover the effects of increasingly severe wildfires over the years, homeowners all around the country could find themselves in perilous economic circumstances. In the case of wildfire-induced property damage, both rebuilding and relocation may prove financially taxing without insurance protection.
"This is a massive issue throughout Oregon," one Redditor commented.
What's being done about the loss of wildfire insurance?
Not all insurers have scrapped their wildfire protections entirely, although the higher the wildfire risk in your area, the more likely it is that your coverage may expire soon.
"It sucks, but I guess it's time to look for other options (while they last)," the original Reddit poster wrote, cautiously optimistic.
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Definitely 🙁 If you're struggling to find insurance coverage, you can take steps to mitigate wildfire damage on your property. Certain homes with various weather-resistant techniques managed to escape the brunt of the Los Angeles fires in January — and if the loss of insurance protection concerns you, try looking into various fire-resistant home designs.
Meanwhile, to address the source of the issue, we need to lower our planet-warming pollution. To make more sustainable choices, try cutting down on your fuel-based home electricity consumption by installing solar panels or heat pumps.
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