BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 12:00 am
Over the next few years, some 1,200 State Farm customers in Wyoming's wildfire-prone areas must create "defensible space" around their homes or risk losing home insurance coverage.
Those homeowners represent about one-fifth of the 21,000 State Farm customers in six Western states whose homes are considered to be in high-risk areas for catastrophic wildfires. Next month, the company begins inspections, looking at customers' properties and high-risk conditions for wildfire.
Steve Niccolai, State Farm commercial underwriting supervisor in Denver, emphasized that this is an extension of a long-standing property reinspection program that looks for correctable hazards. Just as company agents periodically look for fire hazards inside buildings, Niccolai said, now they're looking for fire hazards on the outside.
"I don't expect to lose a single customer," Niccolai said, emphasizing customer education about decreasing wildfire risks, plus cost-sharing programs that can help with the expense of creating defensible space around properties. The focus is on what wildfire experts call the wildland urban interface - that area where people build homes in the mountains and especially amid or next to forests.
Many property owners have erroneous ideas as to what it means to create a defensible space around their mountain homes or cabin in the woods, Niccolai said. "We're not talking about a clear cut around your property," he said. Thinning of tree density, trimming off low-hanging limbs and raking up dry pine needles are just a few things that can be done to lower the degree of wildfire hazards.
Jack Walker, a State Farm agent in Casper, is active in efforts to deal with wildfire hazards on Casper Mountain. He pointed at Mike Bernd's property atop Casper Mountain, as a good example of defensible space. Stonework, stucco and a green metal roof give almost no wood surface for embers to fire up, while trees have been cut in the back yard.
"Mike has some big trees by his front door, but they're far away from the rest of the forest," said Walker. "You can have defensible space and a nice ambiance too."
In Wyoming, State Farm worked closely with a team of state and federal agencies to identify and map wildfire hazards. "The map is coded to reflect the degree of wildfire risk," Niccolai said, running from the lowest risk of 1 (urban areas like Casper and Cheyenne) to the highest degree of risk at 14. "We're focusing on the highest risk levels of 12, 13 and 14," Niccolai said.
According to Jane Darnell, coordinator for Forest Service operations in Wyoming, a wildland urban interface hazard assessment map has been developed. It displays the risk or probability of fuel ignition; lightning strike density; road density; historic fire density; hazard, or vegetative and topological features affecting fire intensity and rate of spread; slope of land, which affects spread of fire uphill; aspect or orientation of land to sunlight; fuels and housing density.
Depending on the combination and/or intensity of the above factors, Wyoming and federal experts can identify the areas of highest risk.
"I've been talking to wildland fire crews and I've begun hearing the term 'scary places', " Niccolai said. "There are 'scary places' back of Casper Mountain," he said, referring to overgrown stands of timber mixed in with dead and dying timber due to insect infestation or storm damage.
Jim Webster, the Wyoming coordinator for the national fire plan, had high praise for State Farm's wildfire policy. "They've always been a proactive company," he said. "I hope more insurance companies will do the same."
Progress has been made through public education efforts, said Webster, but there are all too many people who have ignored warnings about wildfire hazards on their property. "There are others who are of a mindset that they just don't want to cut trees," he said. Ironically, a thinner forest can be a healthier forest, while a dense forest can be unhealthy, as the trees crowd each other and compete for sunlight, water and nutrients, he said.
"Maybe this will get their attention," Webster said.
Although there are no other insurance companies in the Rocky Mountains with a similar wildlife policy, that could change, said Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. "I think this is the future trend for the industry, encouraging policy holders to do the right thing and protect their own lives and property," she said.
"Insurance companies don't want to tell people where to live, but there is a level of risk you accept when you live in a wildfire area," she said.
As more and more people move into wildfire areas, and as the West continues to cope with a multi-year drought, the insurance industry is less willing to assume wildfire risks. "We haven't even had the 'big one', yet," Walker said. Last year's Hayman fire in Colorado cost the industry $38 million. In comparison, the March blizzard cost the insurance industry $93 million.
Next month, State Farm policy holders in at-risk areas will receive a letter, telling them they can expect a visit from inspectors. If a pile of firewood is stacked too close to the building, for example, a second letter will ask the property owner to move it further away. Property owners have between 18 and 24 months to deal with their fire hazards.