Texas Wildfire Losses Could Reach $250 Million

A beleaguered Texas continues to battle new outbreaks of wildfires across the state, and the Insurance Council of Texas says losses could reach a quarter-billion dollars as the number of homes lost rises to close to 2,000.

Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas says in a statement that insured losses from the fires in Bastrop County, Texas, the hardest hit, could cost the industry $150 million alone.

“This is our first estimate of the total insured losses, and the number could vary as more information come in,” says Hanna.

The Texas Forest Service says the fires have claimed 1,939 homes in central and east Texas.

The service says that in the past seven days it has responded to 127 fires covering 9,205 acres.

During a recent press conference, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the wildfires covered an area at that time equal to the size of Connecticut, more than 3.6 million acres.

Moody's Rating Service says the blazes will have a negative impact on insurers' third-quarter results when combined with other losses they've experienced during the third quarter, but the fires are not a major event by themselves.

Moody's says, “The Texas wildfires will not be a major capital or credit event for the P&C industry. However, losses from the wildfires will pressure 2011 earnings, which have already been weakened by high winter-spring storm and tornado losses during the first half of the year and Hurricane Irene in the third quarter.”