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What You Need to Know About Protecting Yourself And Your Home From Fire

Facts About Wildfire Risk

The deadly destruction of a wildfire should not be underestimated. Hard to contain, wildfires devastate everything in their wake and wreak havoc on lives, homes, and landscapes. 

Wildfires occur in 38 states, with California being the state most associated with wildfires and, in fact, eight of the ten most costly wildfires in the U.S. have occurred there.

That said, Texas has been known to have twice the wildfires as California in a given year, and 38 of U.S. states have areas that are at risk.

Insuring Yourself Against Wildfires

If you reside in an area at risk for wildfires, make sure to take appropriate measures to protect your home and business against these devastating events. Though it's not always possible to avoid the devastation of a wildfire, it's essential to protect yourself financially by having sufficient insurance for:

 

  • Your Home – A standard homeowners policy covers damage and destruction caused by fire, which includes wildfires. In the event of a fire, your insurance company will pay to repair or rebuild your home, remediate the smoke damage. Most policies also cover detached structures such as a garage, gazebo or tool shed —generally for about 10 percent of the amount of insurance you have on the structure of the home. A standard homeowners policy will not pay for damage caused by a flood, earthquake or routine wear and tear.

 

  • Your Belongings – A homeowners or renters policy also insures your belongings for damage or loss. 

 

  • A Place to Stay – If your home has been rendered uninhabitable by a wildfire, your renters or homeowners insurance will reimburse you for any additional living expenses, such as a hotel room and meals. 

 

  • Your Vehicle – The optional, comprehensive part of an auto insurance policy will insure your car against fire damage as well as vandalism.

 

  • Your Business – The typical business owner’s policy covers property fire damage to the office space, building, inventory, and equipment.  Business income or business interruption insurance (BI) covers the profits a business would have made, as well as the extra operating expenses incurred as a result of the fire (like the cost of working out of a temporary location).

 

Wildfire Preventative Building Features  

Wildfires need fuel to spread—like plastic, wood, and foliage. Don't encourage your house to feed the flames—fit or retrofit your home with features that deter fire. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety has this advice:

 

  • Maintain 5 feet of non-combustible "defensible space" around your house – Keep a 5-foot diameter space of brick, gravel, or concrete in the area next to your home.

 

  • Maintain an expanded "defensible space" between five and thirty feet from your home – Keeping this area as unattractive to wildfires as possible will cut down on the risk. Move campers/trailers and storage sheds from the area, or build defensible space (see above) around these items. Prune branches that overhang your roof,  remove shrubs under trees, thin trees and any remove dead vegetation.

 

  • Use non-combustible siding – and maintain a 7-inch ground-to-siding clearance.

 

  • Regularly clean from your gutters and roof – to keep debris from catching fire from wind-blown embers. Use noncombustible covers for your gutters.

 

  • Get a Class A fire-rated roof – Class A roofing products offer the best protection for homes.

 

  • Use non-combustible gates and fences – Burning fencing can generate embers and cause a direct flame connection to your home.

 

  • Create soffited eaves and cover vents and  – Use 1/8-inch mesh to cover vents, and box-in (create soffits) on open eaves to keep burning embers out.  

 

  • Use multi-pane, tempered glass windows – be sure to close all windows when a wildfire approaches.

 

  • Experts say that evergreen trees, palms, and eucalyptus trees have more combustible qualities than others—try to keep this type of vegetation at least 100 feet away from the house.

 

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