About 4.5 million U.S. homes are at high or extreme risk of wildfires, according to the 2017 FireLine State Risk Report released by Verisk Insurance Solutions.
The state most at risk: More than 2 million households in California are at high or extreme risk of wildfire, according to the report. Texas ranks second with 715,300 homes at risk.
“Wildfires have scorched nearly 3.5 million acres so far in 2017,” says Arindam Samanta, director of product management and innovation at Verisk Insurance Solutions. “For the first half of 2017, the number of acres burned by wildfires is up 34 percent over 2016 and the 10-year average.”
In the last decade, wildfires have generated more than $5.1 billion in insured losses—$3 billion in just the past five years, according to the report.
“These fires represent one of the leading catastrophe exposures facing the industry today,” Samanta says. “The ability to accurately identify the true wildfire exposure is critical to maintaining cost-based pricing. It also allows insurers that may have avoided the marketplace to explore expanding their book of business in these hazard areas.”
Source: Verisk Insurance Solutions
