The July wildfire events in the state of Washington, includingthe Carlton Complex Fire, will not rise to the level of acatastrophe event—defined by Property Claim Services as $25 millionor more in insured losses.

In a blog post Wednesday, Ted Gregory, manager, PCS, said theaffected areas included “high rates of uninsured homes,” meaningwhile economic losses are high, insured losses are low.

He said that claim volume has been minimal, and there was littledamage to commercial and government structures.

On top of that, Gregory said each fire was a separate event,meaning each one would have to meet PCS' definition of acatastrophe.

Asked what played a bigger role in the fires not rising to thelevel of a catastrophe event: the number of uninsured structures,or the events being considered separately, Gregory said, “all ofthe above.”

He noted that in addition to meeting the $25 million threshold,PCS considers whether a significant number of carriers wereimpacted by an event, and that was not the case even for theCarlton Complex Fire, which was the largest fire in the state's history.