AIG Creates Wildfire Response Team

American International Group said it has created a Wildfire Protection Unit program that will rush a team to an area when a blaze is approaching and pour fire retardant on the home and grounds of customers in harm's way.

The unit in addition to a response team provides risk management consultation, AIG said.

Stephen Poux, director of loss prevention, AIG Private Client Group, said the protection unit program was developed as part of his company's work with Firebreak Spray Systems, LLC, which has teamed with AIG in putting permanent fire suppression systems in homes.

Under the program, Mr. Poux explained, a team will visit a policyholder's home and advise them what needs to be done to help mitigate the possibility of a wildfire reaching their home, including clearing brush and removing potentially flammable material from around the home.

Next is a pre-treatment program using a fire retardant, Phos-Chek, employed by the U.S. Forest Service in fighting fires, to create a firebreak for sections of the property if a wildfire occurs.

The third feature of the program involves a rapid response team that monitors any wildfires. The team is not a firefighting unit, he noted, but if a fire comes within three miles of a client's home, a team will be dispatched to pre-treat any potentially flammable portions of the home, such as a wood deck or wood shingle roof.

"There is nothing like this anywhere else," said Mr. Poux.

The program is available to all AIG Private Client Group policyholders in the designated response zones in "some of the most exclusive real estate in the country," said Mr. Poux. The homes are typically worth millions of dollars, he said.

The program covers a total of 14 Zip code regions in Northern and Southern California that are considered high risk, he said. It does not replace any regulations or standards set by the state or municipalities, or replace local fire authority, but augments these services, the company noted.

"The response has been dynamite," Mr. Poux said of the reaction from both the company's independent agents and policyholders to the program. He said based on the success of Wildfire Protection Unit this year "we hope to offer this unprecedented service to as many of our policyholders as possible."