CA Needs Wildfire Insurance Law: Commissioner

SACRAMENTO, CA -- California homeowners are having more difficulty finding wildfire insurance even as the natural disaster becomes more of a threat, said state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones this week. Jones, who released a report on the growing problem of fire insurance availability, called on the state Legislature to enact a law that would alleviate the dilemma.

Over the past two decades, wildfires have caused significant insured damage in what is called the wildland-urban interface where an estimated 3.6 million California homes are located and more than one million are identified as being at high or very high fire risk, according to the Department of Insurance.

"Californians are facing more severe, more unpredictable and more frequent wildfires," Jones said. "Add to the equation, increasing development in areas more vulnerable to fire and you can see why wildfires are now an everyday threat to life and property for Californians."

The California Department of Insurance said it is seeing an increasing number of complaints, feedback and other evidence from policyholders, consumer groups, public officials, and other stakeholders that homeowners' insurance coverage in the wildland-urban interface is increasingly difficult to obtain and, if available, is unaffordable for many.

"Insurers are increasingly using computer models to assess the risk of fires for individual homes and deciding that homes in some areas face too high a risk," Jones said. "In the wake of last year's wildfires, we may see more areas of the state where insurers decline to write. The Legislature has given insurers broad latitude to decide whether and where to write fire insurance, therefore we are recommending new laws to improve fire insurance availability."

The state endured its worst fire season in 2017 when wildfires destroyed or damaged more than 21,000 homes in Northern California in October. Forty-four people also died in those wildfires. Nearly two months later, wildfires scorched through Southern California, killing two people.

The Thomas Fire, which is near full containment, is going down in history as the state's largest wildfire, charring more than 280,000 acres in December.

--Photo: A fire truck is parked outside a mansion as smoke from a wildfire rises behind the property Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017, in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)