It Figures

November 4, 2007

$1.5 Billion

Average estimated total of insured losses that will result from the Southern California wildfires that burned in October. Most industry analysts agree that the losses will be above $1 billion. Yet with homeowners and claims personnel just recently given access to charred areas at press time, analysts were hesitant to provide more concrete figures — despite acknowledging that multi-million dollar homes were in the area. If loss estimates escalate much above the $1.5 billion figure, it would push this year’s fires to the costliest wildfire catastrophe insured loss event in the P/C industry, Fitch Ratings indicated.