All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mar 13 2019 // Aon has formed a strategic alliance with Zesty.ai, a San Francisco-based insurtech startup, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance insurers’ property underwriting.Zesty.ai’s technology provides...
Mar 7 2019 // After successive years of devastating wildfires, California’s fire agency has announced a plan that would dramatically increase the removal of dead trees and other forest management efforts with the help of the...
Mar 7 2019 // More homes were being threatened Tuesday [March 5] by wildfires that have burned dozens of homes and buildings in rural southeast Australia.Victoria state Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said emergency...
Mar 6 2019 // A federal judge is requiring PG&E Corp. to abide by rules governing how the utility operates its power lines in California, seeking to reform what he described as “dismal” management that led to a series of...
Mar 4 2019 // Joan Didion’s “Holy Water,” written in 1977, is a paean to the elaborate engineering that supplied her taps in Malibu and filled drinking glasses in Hollywood restaurants. At its heart is a warning:The...
Feb 27 2019 // Insurers are increasingly worried that rising temperatures will lead to a slump in property values that could spark broader financial turmoil.Those were the conclusions a group run out of the University of Cambridge...
Feb 18 2019 // Some 1,000 lawsuits have been filed since late 2017 demanding Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation pay for damages caused by wildfires. The lawsuits represent thousands of people, companies, cities and counties affected...
Feb 18 2019 // A University of Missouri researcher is teaming up with scholars in Kansas and Georgia to develop drone technology to monitor and potentially predict the spread of wildfires. The $1.2 million project will use drones to...
Feb 14 2019 // California’s insurance commissioner and a lawmaker want to the state to consider buying insurance in the private market to cover rapidly increasing costs of fighting wildfires due to climate change.State Sen. Bill...
Feb 12 2019 // About 3,000 people who fled as a wildfire threatened a New Zealand town were allowed to return home Monday [Feb. 11] as firefighting conditions improved.Another 400 residents living in valleys near the fire aren’t...
Feb 11 2019 // Poor communication, short staffing and infighting among agencies may have endangered firefighters who nearly died during the massive Mendocino Complex of wildfires in Northern California, according to a new report...
Feb 11 2019 // The warning couldn’t have been clearer.As PG&E Corp. plunged into bankruptcy last month, S&P Global Ratings slashed credit grades almost to junk status for California’s two other big electric utilities,...
Feb 8 2019 // The nation’s largest utility is promising to overhaul its wildfire-prevention measures in response to growing legal, financial and public pressure over its role in starting some of the most destructive blazes in...
Feb 7 2019 // Boeing Co. was accused of negligence tied to a wildfire that tore through Malibu, California, in November and that purportedly started on the grounds of the nearby, disused Rocketdyne testing site.A group of homeowners...
Feb 7 2019 // Anyone who gets power from PG&E Corp. could see their lights go out this fire season.Even the millions of Californians who live outside risky areas could be left in the dark under a sweeping proposal the utility filed...
Feb 5 2019 // The California Fire Safe Council on Tuesday announced a list of new officers of the board of directors.Jerry Davies has been elected to a fifth term as chairman of the CFSC board. Davies is a founding member of CFSC and a...
Feb 5 2019 // Some 1,000 lawsuits have been filed since late 2017 demanding Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation pay for damages caused by wildfires. The lawsuits represent thousands of people, companies, cities and counties affected...
Feb 4 2019 // Big corporations forced into bankruptcy by liability lawsuits often take the offending product off the market and try to move on. That’s what happened with the Dalkon Shield birth control device, asbestos and...
Feb 4 2019 // Establishing a California Wildfire Commission is just one idea an expert is tossing out to help the state deal with worsening fire seasons.James Woods was formerly co-leader of Mayer Brown’s Global Insurance Industry...
Feb 1 2019 // Specialty companies specifically operating in the utility sector are likely to face substantial claims and losses stemming from the bankruptcy filing by PG&E Corp., the California utility whose equipment is being...