Wildfire Threat, Mitigation, Risk Transfer and Insurability: Texas and the Western US

Wildfire risk in the US and around the world has increased dramatically in recent years. In the US, the western states including Montana, Washington, Oregon, and California have been most impacted. Texas has now become a hot spot for wildfires with significant losses as well. Risk transfer has been traditionally through insurance and dependent on community funded responses. However, due to staggering losses, the insurance community has chosen to non-renew policies throughout the western states and in Texas, significantly impacting the health and wellbeing of communities and individuals. Mitigation from wildfire risk is possible and should be a common practice in the at-risk states. Communities and individuals can reduce fuel load on properties, create safety zones around structures, manage sources of human caused ignition, use fire resistant building materials, and ensure rapid and effective response resources are available. Insurability is becoming more difficult causing home and business owners to rely on default state or federal programs as the last means of risk transfer. Vulnerable communities are especially impacted with options too expensive to engage leaving many uninsured and/or underinsured. New strategies are needed to provide asset protection. The National Flood Protection Program serves as an encouraging model to address the growing wildfire risk in the west and Texas. This type of program would require communities and individuals to be more engaged in all phases of wildfire management. Stakeholders would be partners in cohesive planning, mitigation, response and recovery. The challenges are significant and this paper provides and overview of the wildfire threat, insurability, mitigation strategies, and program alternatives.