(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Laurie Goering I Thomon Reuter Foundation
PARIS:&nbp; When foret fire wept into the Canadian city of Fort McMurray four year ago, a hurried evacuation of more than 80,000 people and the lo of thouand of home and other building made the $10-billion diater the cotliet in Canada' hitory.
But when tunned reident et out to rebuild the northern Alberta city, inurer tried to make ure the huge loe - $6 billion of which were uninured - would not happen again.
Mot allowed client whoe home were detroyed to take a cah ettlement and rebuild in a afer place intead of replacing fire-vulnerable home near foret around the city.
More than a quarter of familie took up that offer, aid Tara Laidman, aociate vice preident at The Co-operator, a Canadian inurance firm providing policie in the city.
Other familie, uing replacement-cot policie, rebuilt with fire-reitant roof, fewer wooden deck and other change deigned to cut fire rik, inurer aid.
"Fort McMurray i now a much more reilient community, built back better," aid Laidman at an Organiation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting in Pari thi month that dicued how to tame wildfire threat.
A climate change bring hotter and drier condition, and countrie from Autralia to Canada and Portugal to the United State truggle with worening fire, all are looking for way to curb urging rik and loe.
Inurance i expected to play an important role, both by compenating loe and by driving change in building code, warning ytem and government policy which could cut rik.
But quetion remain about the limit of inurance in tackling fat-riing threat - not only how people at highet rik and with lower income can afford it, but whether inurance model can cope with much more frequent and detructive fire.
"If your houe i rebuilt twice in a century, on average, that' going to be intolerable for the functioning of inurance," warned Robert Muir-Wood, chief reearch officer of Rik Management Solution, a firm that model catatrophe rik.
CALIFORNIA BURNING
California, long accutomed to wildfire, ha begun to experience thoe limit after a brutal 2018 fire year when 85 people - and thouand of home - perihed in blaze, including one that incinerated the town of Paradie.
Following the diater - and maive loe - inurer began cancelling policie for home featuring on new fire rik map, even if their owner had paid premium for decade and never made a claim, aid California' inurance commiioner Ricardo Lara.
Once dropped, "you can't ell your home, it devalue your home and there' le (tax) money for local government to provide ervice", Lara told the OECD meeting.
Some familie, he noted, were forced to buy the cotliet inurance policie - ometime paying more than for mortgage - while the poor could not afford cover at all.
California reponded by introducing temporary retriction on companie crapping policie for homeowner in and around fire-hit area.
But, a the tate look to a future with more frequent and fiercer fire, it i till figuring out how to mandate policy proviion while keeping price reaonable and inurance firm in buine, Lara aid.
One model may be Britain' Flood Re http://www.floodre.co.uk, a joint effort between the government and inurance firm that aim to make flood policie more affordable for thoe at higher rik.
The initiative, launched in 2016, ubidie the cot of flood inurance for thoe living in low-lying area, often along the ea or waterway, through a levy on all home inurance policie old.
With one in ix propertie in Britain judged at high rik of flooding, according to Flood Re, the effort provide much-needed affordable inurance cover, backer ay.
But it alo raie quetion about the tolerance of policy holder for helping out thoe at rik, epecially if climate change bring more extreme rainfall and riing ea.
The ucce of uch ubidie likely will depend on trong effort to keep loe in check, uch a intalling eawall or requiring rebuilt home to put electrical ytem higher on wall to top them being damaged, inurer aid.
The reality i "inurer are not going to write buine that i unprofitable. It' not their function," Muir-Wood aid.
That raie "a political quetion on how government hould intervene" a rik and potential loe rie, he aid.
RISING COSTS
Wildfire are already bringing a heavier economic burden.
In 2018, the cot of fighting wildfire broke $3 billion for the firt time for the U.S. federal government alone, according to the National Interagency Fire Center http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_tatitic.html.
Autralia' government allocated AUD 2 billion ($1.4 billion) for an "initial" recovery fund thi month after record buhfire hit every tate and blanketed many large citie in heavy moke.
On top of the emergency repone and recontruction of home and other infratructure, loe come from decline in tourim, export and other earning a farm and buinee are hit, higher healthcare cot and falling property tax income.
Globally, 70% of loe from wildfire and other "natural catatrophe" remain uninured, repreenting about $200 billion in annual loe, inurer aid.
In the future, reducing thoe loe will be crucial.
Better building code how ome promie. In the 2018 California fire, about half of houe built ince 2008 - when fire-afe building code tightened - urvived the blaze, compared to 18% of houe built earlier, Muir-Wood aid.
Autralia now ha imilar national building code to cut fire rik, and it i older home that ee the highet loe, aid Richard Thornton, head of the country' Buhfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Reearch Centre.
Recogniing that "flammable vegetation and people don't mix" and retricting rebuilding in area at evere fire rik alo will be needed, aid Iain Colin Prentice, director of the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfire, Environment and Society at Imperial College London.
"Land ue planning ha to conider the rik, and they're not going to go away," he aid.
Rethinking inurance payout may alo help.
Laidman, of The Co-operator in Canada, aid her company offer flood-threatened policy holder CAD 5,000 ($3,800) upfront to put in andbag, an inflatable dyke or other way to defend their home.
That can "ignificantly reduce the everity of a claim", he aid, making ene for both inurer and their client.
In the cae of wildfire, pre-emptive cah might pay for application of flame retardant or other protective meaure, he aid - though becaue fire are harder to predict and move fater uch meaure would likely be le effective.
Simply giving homeowner clearer information on fire rik - uing imple online tool, or providing data at the time of houe purchae - could alo help cut loe, he added.
Michael Norton, director general of Canada' Northern Foretry Centre, which operate under the natural reource minitry, aid tep to trim fire loe would be crucial in coming year. "The pace at which the fire problem i growing in Canada i overwhelming all of our ytem and, like many of you, we are crambling to catch up," he told the OECD conference.
"Our trajectory i abolutely for more fire, bigger fire, more evere fire and longer fire eaon."
&nbp;
MENAFN2501202000630000ID1099601251