Restrictions homeowners should be aware of during wildfire season

All homes must be insured in Canada and that has to include fire damage as well.

“Wildfires really aren’t differentiated any differently than an electrical fire, a kitchen fire, basically from an insurance standpoint fire is fire.” said Brownridge.

Homes aren’t just covered for damage from fire. Many comprehensive policies can also help if you’re forced to evacuate and your home doesn’t suffer from any damage. Many policies will also cover damages in the event of vandalism and looting in the event of a wildfire.

“Even if the property is not directly affected from the fire, that’s there’s no property damage. Your typical homeowners insurance will cover for what’s called ‘mass evacuation insurance’. So it would basically covered some living expenses and things like that if they had to evacuate and then have to go rent a hotel or something else outside the area, they can have coverage and reimbursement for that.” said Brownridge.

Some homeowners may want to consider extended or adding new policies to their properties. But making those decisions during wildfire season might not be possible depending if there’s an active fire nearby.

“Most insurers have taken a stance that just within a set distance from any active fire, a broker does not have the authority to bind new coverage, typically it’s 50 kilometres but there still some markets that do 25 kilometres.” said Brownridge.

However, Brownridge says that there are some exceptions to those rules depending on the size and the control status of any nearby fires.

“Even if there is a fire within those distances, depending on the circumstances of the fire, if it’s a little point two hectare fire that is deemed basically as contained, but it’s still on the wildfire map, technically as a broker, yeah we won’t have the authority to do it all the time. But if we talk to the underwriter, they review it, they can give us permission to proceed.” said Brownridge.

In the event of an evacuation, homeowners should try and keep any documents that contain their policy number so that they can properly file a claim.

by Oli Herrera

Restrictions homeowners should be aware of during wildfire season

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