By Robert Bruce
We’re at the start of fire season and right in the middle of a three-year drought. We’ve been reminded again what can happen by watching TV reports of the Santa Barbara fire. Protection of our homes and families from wildfire is on our minds, but a related issue becomes the primary focus after a fire insurance.
I live outside Ukiah in a semi-rural area, surrounded by flammable vegetation. We think about it often, as we lost our home in the 1991 Oakland/Berkeley fire that destroyed more than 3,000 homes. That fire raged from a wildland-urban interface zone into a residential area.
But after the fire, a third of the 3,000 families were devastated again by insurance problems. Some of these hassles meant families were not made whole. They did not get new homes.
As a lifelong newspaper reporter and editor, after the 1991 Oakland fire I started a tabloid newspaper for fire survivors. We covered issues important to people trying to get their lives back together. The dominant concern was getting a fair insurance settlement that would allow families to rebuild their houses and their lives.
There were 20 or 30 different insurance carriers with policies in the East Bay hills, ranging from giants like Allstate and State Farm to obscure little companies with one or two clients.
Some older couples were underinsured because they had paid off their home loans and neglected the occasional upgrade mailers from their insurance agents. Others had added rooms, but their insurance didn’t reflect the added value.
Eventually, insurance issues became a staple of my newspaper, as more than 1,000 families had difficulty getting what they thought was a fair settlement.
Eventually, under the glare of publicity, some big companies upgraded their policies after the fact, especially when policyholders banded together in company groups to negotiate as a unit.
So here we are in the Ukiah hills. When we bought our house in 2001 we signed up with one of the large carriers. This worked out fine until two years ago the company notified us that our property had been inspected and found to be a fire hazard. They told us we would have to clear up to 300 feet around our house before they would certify us as safe and renew our policy.
Can you imagine clearing 300 feet around a hillside home smack in the middle of a forest?
We fought them. We challenged whether they had actually inspected or simply looked down from Google Earth. We complained to the California Department of Insurance about the company’s clearance policy. The DOI helped us confront our insurance carrier about their demand.
Ultimately, our carrier told us that our policy would continue in effect for the next year Š but that we would likely have to go through the same thing the next year when the time came to renew.
By this time we had opted to be sure we were covered. We switched to another insurance carrier that did not have the “fire-prone” designation, and which readily wrote us a homeowner policy.
This is somewhat ironic, because this particular insurance company, being the carrier with the most clients, was the biggest villain after the 1991 fire. Many acquaintances in the Oakland hills still won’t go near them. But companies learn and policies change.
As property owners in a wildland/urban interface (WUI), you should plan for a probable fire. Strategize first how you and your loved ones will escape. Remember, the fire may not come from the most obvious direction. Work with neighbors to have defensible space. Take measures to prevent your home or barn or garage from burning.
A fire has two parts before and after. Making sure that you have adequate insurance is just as important as fire prevention. FEMA money will never be adequate to rebuild your home. Talk to your agent about scenarios. Make sure you get are fully covered, and get your agent’s promises in writing.
Because property values and construction costs constantly change, you may not have enough insurance to rebuild. Inventory your belongings yearly by photo or video, and keep the record in a safe deposit box.
- ukiahdailyjournal.com -