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Thursday, August 19, 2004
Fire Precautions May Be Required
By Kathy Louise Schuit
Mountain View Telegraph
Defensible space may soon be a prerequisite for getting or keeping fire insurance in areas considered "potentially hazardous" by insurance carriers.
The East Mountains is such an area.
Defensible space requirements are "a trend within the (insurance) industry," said Carol Walker, executive director for Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Services, an insurance trade organization.
State Farm Insurance is leading the way, she said.
People living in areas at high risk for wildfires would normally encounter higher insurance rates than other homeowners, Walker said.
Compliance with State Farm's Wildfire Inspection Program is mandatory for the company's insured properties in those areas, but also gives affected homeowners a way to maintain lower rates, said Walker.
"It's a way for us to help consumers better protect themselves and their property," said Maria Taylor, public affairs specialist for State Farm.
In 2003, State Farm began implementation of its Wildfire Inspection Program to help homeowners identify potential fire hazards and create defensible space around their homes, Taylor said.
Moving slowly through the six-state Southwest region, the State Farm program will eventually include insurance customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.
Only homes in areas considered "potentially hazardous" are included in the program, Taylor said.
Homes in the East Mountains area do fall under the program's criteria but will not be directly affected by the program until next year, said Jordan Marsh, State Farm special projects manager, who is coordinating the wildfire inspection program.
Until then, only homeowners whose policies come up for inspection as part of the regular policy renewal process will be asked to comply with the program's requirements.
The program requires inspections on insured properties within the potentially hazardous areas, Taylor said. An independent third party— Survey Associates Inc.— performs the inspections and creates a list of fire safety improvements that need to be made.
Removing dead tree limbs and brush from near the house, trimming branches that hang over the roof, cleaning the gutters, moving woodpiles away from the house, cleaning chimney screens and keeping the grass near the house mowed are among the measures that may be mandated following an inspection.
Once problems have been identified, homeowners have up to 29 months to make the improvements, Taylor said. Some homeowners will have lots of work to do— like removing entire trees that are too close to the house or changing out wooden roof shingles— and will use all the available time to get it done.
State Farm-insured homeowners that don't comply by creating defensible space as suggested by the inspectors do risk losing their insurance or encountering higher rates, Taylor said.
While other insurance companies do not have programs as extensive as State Farm's, Walker said, most of them either have or are considering similar measures to compel homeowners to take precautions to mitigate wildfire risk.
In performing the inspections, homeowners are given advance notice that their property will be inspected, Marsh said.
Survey Associates' recommendations are based on Firewise guidelines for creating defensible space, he said. Firewise is an informational service of the National Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Program that incorporates fire prevention techniques from various fire agencies.
Marsh urges all homeowners to follow the Firewise guidelines found on the Internet at www.firewise.org.
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