All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Feb 21 2020 // A fund that offers only fire insurance to California residents in wildfire-prone areas can’t be required to provide coverage for other hazards such as flooding or theft, a judge ruled this week.Superior Court Judge...
Feb 20 2020 // Pacific Gas and Electric says it expects to become more profitable than ever after it emerges from bankruptcy and pays off more than $25 billion in losses sustained in catastrophic wildfires ignited by its outdated...
Feb 18 2020 // A newly proposed bill would clarify under California law the concept of “hardened homes” that are safer or more resistant to wildfires and then require admitted carriers to cover those homes.California’s...
Feb 13 2020 // Doctors and other experts say at least 50 more people, many of them elderly or ill, likely died as a result of the 2018 wildfire that devastated the town of Paradise, California, but were not counted in the official death...
Feb 12 2020 // Last year was a particularly hazardous one, with natural catastrophes causing excessive damages in what appears to be an ongoing trend of higher losses in the past decade, while also posing a danger in many U.S....
Feb 11 2020 // California utilities plan to continue shutting off power to customers during dry and windy conditions to prevent sparking deadly wildfires, but they aim to make outages more targeted to avoid widespread blackouts,...
Feb 11 2020 // Fires and floods are sending some of the nation’s largest utilities to the bond market to cover huge, unexpected bills. California’s PG&E Corp., which was forced into bankruptcy a year ago after its...
Feb 7 2020 // Recent wildfires in California Wine Country, particularly those that devastated parts of Napa and Sonoma counties in October 2017, have focused attention on whether insurance covers smoke taint damage to grapes and...
Feb 6 2020 // A federal judge has approved a settlement that moves Pacific Gas & Electric closer to getting out of bankruptcy, but the troubled utility still must navigate nettlesome obstacles being put up by the state of...
Feb 6 2020 // For most of the 20th century, the insurance industry considered wildfires to be little more than a benign nuisance. They occurred frequently but rarely resulted in more than a handful of claims, and underwriters priced for...
Feb 4 2020 // Premium data from all surplus lines stamping offices for 2019 shows that California once again led the nation in total surplus line premiums, possibly boosted by construction spending and wildfires.The Surplus Line...
Feb 4 2020 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic.Preparing for a catastrophe is a science. This science involves models built from data and analytics that can capture the worst-case scenario for businesses and...
Jan 24 2020 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging a federal judge to reject Pacific Gas and Electric’s blueprint for getting out of bankruptcy and renewing his threat to lead a bid to turn the beleaguered utility into a...
Jan 23 2020 // It took two years for Nigel Allison to build his mud-brick house on a sleepy southeastern tip of Australia, and just hours for it to be gutted by fire.The cherished three-bedroom home built in 1986 was one of several...
Jan 21 2020 // A county in Northern California wine country is exploring plans to sue a utility over a massive wildfire last fall that combined with rolling power shutoffs caused losses of $725 million.The Sonoma County Board of...
Jan 17 2020 // A state lawmaker is demanding an extensive review of the California Public Utilities Commission to determine whether regulators’ lax oversight enabled neglect at Pacific Gas & Electric that triggered catastrophic...
Jan 17 2020 // PG&E Corp. needs to explain how it will keep a promise to pay fire victims $13.5 billion in the face of a demand from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a cut of that money, a bankruptcy judge said...
Jan 13 2020 // A regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday said FEMA is going after California utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric for $3.9 billion owed the government due to wildfires that PG&E was...
Jan 13 2020 // Survivors of a historically deadly Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people can sue the National Park Service for failing to warn them of the danger, a federal judge has ruled.The fire began in the Great Smoky Mountains...
Jan 13 2020 // The insurance industry is so intertwined into the economy and society, that just about any noticeable change in either will have some impact for the insurance industry.That is why it is imperative for agency owners to...