Fire Insurance & Lake Almanor Homes

Homes from Northern CA to LA are having increasing challenges obtaining fire insurance. Chamber member, Bob Rouland of Rouland Insurance, shared these challenges and what homeowners can do about it with a large group of homeowners at a February 26 meeting at the Chester Public Utilities District.   Below are highlights from the meeting.
Quality of Area Services and Fire Department.  Fire Department ratings are crucial to an insurance company when looking at your area.  Each Fire Department is rated by an ISO.  An ISO rating, also referred to as a fire score or Public Protection Classification (PPC), is a score from 1 to 10 that indicates how well-protected a community is against fire loss.  An ISO of 1 is the best.  10 is a fail. Points are assigned in 4 areas.

• Emergency Communication Systems (10 points)
• Fire Departments, covering personnel, capabilities, training, equipment, etc. (50 points)
• Water Supply (40 points)
• Community Risk Reduction (extra credit of up to 5.5 points).

Our area with current Fire Department efficiency, training and equipment has an ISO-3.
FireLine Rating of the Home. Since the big fires of our recent past, insurance companies have increased their look at a home’s fire vulnerability and now use a FireLine score to rate your home.  A FireLine is a score from 0-30, and it combines several different risk factors regarding a home, the satellite imagery around the home, and pinpoints it to the property address.
There are three critical factors that affect the risk of wildfire loss:
1. Fuel—Grass, trees, or dense brush can feed a wildfire. FireLine calculates an average of fuels in a 3-radial distance within a mile of the dwelling.
2. Slope—Steeper slopes can increase the speed and intensity of wildfire. They also increase prices of rebuilding if necessary.
3. Access—Identifies whether a dwelling is located where firefighting equipment may have trouble negotiating, such as dead-end roads.
 
FireLine calculates the risk from each of these factors, as well as provides hazard ratings for specific properties.  FireLine also identifies properties located in Special Hazard Interface Areas—risks outside fuel areas but exposed to wind-borne embers and high heat from nearby fuels.
Obtaining and Retaining Insurance.  Bob shared that it is crucial to keep your existing homeowner’s insurance if at all possible.  Having insurance cancelled due to failure to pay a premium, or cancelling to look for a cheaper plan will make it very difficult to renew or find a new plan.  If you are cancelled, contact an insurance agent immediately to discuss your options.  There are insurers available, but they are becoming fewer and more expensive.  If nothing is available, the Fair Plan Act can be obtained, but doesn’t cover as much or as well as a traditional policy.  Additional insurance will be necessary for other loses.
Contact your insurance agent to review your home.   Specific issues and questions from the audience were about trees, roads, chimneys, roofs, etc.  Some are listed below:

• Trees must be limbed 10 ft up—from bottom of tree to canopy. Also, trees must be 10 feet “clear sky canopy” from structure.
• Tree limbs must be 10 feet from chimney and roof.
• Firewood must be 30 feet from structures.
• Underwriters now want dwellings to be 600 ft from two roads, which gives emergency vehicles access to homes
• Requirements for shrubbery or plants takes the height of a plant and multiply it by 3 = 15 ft from one shrub to another shrub.
• Eaves of house 1/8-inch width and diameter must have screens on the vents
• Building codes and county fire codes don’t always align. Thus, homeowners should talk to insurance agents for clarification.