As hundreds of thousands of acres burn across much of the Northwest U.S., fire fighters are stretched to capacity and reinforcements are coming from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to help in the never-ending battle. Two hundred soldiers from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., have been deployed to assist with firefighting efforts in Washington State. Five wildland fire suppression crews and one CL-415 scooper group from Ontario, Canada and airtanker groups from both Saskatchewan and Alberta are lending their firefighting expertise to fire suppression efforts in the Northern Rockies as more than 40,000 acres burned in that area alone.
The National Interagency Fire Center says that over 8 million acres have burned so far this year, and while the total number of fires for the year is lower than the national average, the number of acres consumed is well over the 5.5 million annual average. Three firefighters were overtaken by a wildfire in north-central Washington and lost their lives. Four others were severely injured. The fires in Washington State have consumed more than 235,000 acres of trees, homes and other structures, and the Okanogan Complex fire is the largest fire in the state's history at 144,000 acres. Preliminary estimates place damages to structures at more than $8 million according to the Seattle Times.
In this Aug. 3, 2015, file photo CalFire firefighter Bo Santiago lights a backfire as the Rocky fire burns near Clearlake, Calif. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson, File)
California and Idaho are also battling fires on multiple fronts. Dr. Arindam Samanta, senior manager of underwriting products and analytics for Verisk Climate, a Verisk Analytics business, says "the largest and most destructive fire in California was the Rocky Fire, more than 100 miles north of San Francisco (in Lake County), damaging more than 90 structures," (according to CalFire).
What does this mean for insurers?
All of these wildfires pose several challenges for insurers. The first involves getting adjusters into the impacted areas to meet with their policyholders and see what type of damage they have sustained. Since so many of the fires are still not under control, homeowners, business owners and adjusters have not been able to access many of the areas to determine the scope of the losses.
"Timing and safety are two primary challenges," says Samanta. "Typically it takes some time before an insurance carrier is aware that a wildfire has affected an insured property. Wildfires also take time to subside, so there's often a time lag. Only when conditions are safe can adjusters examine a property."
"Usually we see two types of losses with wildfires," says Craig Nance, a general adjuster with Zaremba Claims Service, Inc. in Yakima, Wash., "smoke damage from blowing smoke and soot, with exterior damage and acidic damage, and then there are the total losses."
Flames pour from a structure fully engulfed in fire in a wildfire Friday afternoon, Aug. 21, 2015, in Tonasket, Wash. Out-of-control blazes in north-central Washington have destroyed buildings, but the situation is so chaotic that authorities have "no idea" how many homes may have been lost. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Nance explains how fire crews handle burning structures. "What the fire crews will do is when your house starts to burn, they leave because there's no putting it out. When the fire is on your house and all around it, it's hard to contain."
Wildfire claims require a lot of sympathy and compassion on the part of adjusters and claims managers because in many cases the insureds have lost everything they didn't take with them when they evacuated. Frequently in floods, hurricanes and even tornadoes, there may be some contents left behind – pictures, stuffed animals, furniture and other mementos. In a wildfire, all that is left are ashes and memories.
"Imagine that an entire neighborhood has burned," describes Nance. "The Carleton Complex fire [in 2014] took entire neighborhoods. You stand there in shock. It's like a hurricane or tornado because it's that level of devastation."
The charred remains of a property is shown near Clearlake, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Check the paperwork
Sam Tatum with Zarema's office in Wenatchee, Wash., recommends that adjusters "check the policies for coverage that applies and any other coverage such as an additional demo allowance, or coverage for trees, fences, etc. This is an important task."
He agrees that the biggest challenge is just being able to get to the loss site due to road closures and evacuations.
"Another big challenge is when there is nothing left but a foundation to look at. You need to see if the owner or any member of the family has any photos of what the loss looked like prior to the fire coming through the area," says Tatum. "We need to be able to somewhat reconstruct the home in order to complete an estimate." Saving photos to the cloud or some other offsite entity will help in reconstructing both the house and the contents for the insurance claim.
"Customer service is particularly important with these insureds," adds Nance. "All you can do is measure a foundation, the rest is about communication – asking them what kind of kitchen they had, where were the walls, helping them reconstruct what was there."
He compares working these losses to handling other catastrophes. "It's just total devastation and it requires having compassion and sympathy to work with the insured. If you don't have that right away, it's going to be a difficult claim to work. And these types of claims take a little longer to adjust."
Flames burn in the gutted remains of a mobile home destroyed at Korth's Pirate's Lair Marina in Isleton, Calif., Thursday, July 30, 2015. Fire crews from multiple agencies battled the fire that destroyed multiple homes and damaged several others. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Nance says some adjusters may handle them as an actual cash value or market value to pay part of the claim and get some money to the policyholders as soon as possible. "We usually won't need as detailed an estimate and line items because we'll be writing them as a total loss."
Related: Planning for catastrophes
Other steps insurers should take with wildfires include tracking the wildfire activity and the areas that are being impacted either directly with fire or indirectly with smoke. "Proactive monitoring of wildfire activity can help in many ways, such as timely assessment of potential claims activity, allocation of claims adjusting resources to expedite the claims settlement process, and ultimately improving customer satisfaction," shares Samanta.
A hillside is scorched where structures were lost to a wildfire days earlier as smoke from an ongoing wildfire fills the valley behind Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, near Chelan, Wash. The complex of fires burning throughout the area are the largest in state history. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Adjusters should also have good relationships with restoration companies, advises Bill Heeb with American Modern Insurance. Homes suffering smoke damage may require some testing to confirm that it is ash from a wildfire as opposed to cigarette ash, diesel fuel soot or artificial heat charred dust. Since smoke plumes can travel hundreds of miles, adjusters will need to confirm the presence of wildfire smoke. Sampling near a wildfire event will show more concentrations of smoke particulate, which can be ash, soot and some char.
Russell Nassof, an environmental and healthcare risk attorney says that every fire has its own signature and matching particulate to a fire's signature can help confirm whether or not the smoke damage was a direct result of a specific fire. He says that just the odor of smoke is not indicative of whether or not the particles are from a wildfire. He recounted one case where there was contamination in the laundry room of a house. Someone in the home had been walking in the woods and brought particles in on his clothes, but the home itself had not suffered damage from a wildfire.
Ash deposited from forest fires is generally not harmful, although it can be an irritant if it comes in contact with the skin. In some cases, adjusters may want to wear a dust mask or an N-95 respirator if there is heavy smoke damage in a building.
With more than 800,000 acres burning in Washington State alone, insurance company staffs will be in demand when it comes to inspecting and closing covered losses throughout the western part of the country, and those losses will most likely be measured in the tens of millions of dollars.
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