Although official loss numbers have not yet been released for Colorado's Black Forest Fire, the state's insurance association says the record-setting blaze may cost insurers more than $100 million.
“Adjusters have been in the process of compiling losses for several weeks now, and with about 486 homes burned according to El Paso County, it certainly is the most destructive in [state] history in terms of structures burned in one fire,” Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association (RMIIA), tells PC360. “Initial estimates show that damage can be upwards of $100 million in losses.”
On Tuesday, El Paso County assessor Mark Lowderman told the Denver Post that the fire, which started on June 11, burned more than 14,000 acres, caused about $85 million in damage to homes. The total was given after the assessor's office conducted on-site inspections of 2,400 parcels.
According to news sources, there are about 200 large and small companies selling homeowner's insurance in Colorado. Walker says that typical claims will include partial and total property loss, additional living expenses (ALE), content replacement and smoke damage. She says that while Colorado is more accustomed to widespread and costly hailstorm damage that involves vehicle and roof replacement, wildfires are “more personally devastating.”
The estimate comes a little more than a year after the anniversary of the Waldo Canyon Fire, Colorado's previously most-damaging fire. The fire, combined with its sister High Park Fire, both of which occurred in late June 2012, caused a combined $567.4 million in insured losses- about $117 million more than initially estimated last year.
The Waldo Canyon Fire, the costlier of the two, triggered 6,648 homeowner and auto claims, and the High Park Fire triggered 1,293 claims.
“[The Black Forest Fire] is somewhat different to the Waldo Canyon Fire, which was unique to Colorado; while most of our large-scale fires occur in mountainous areas, this affected city blocks and left what looked like tornado damage, with some structures untouched and others burned to their foundation,” says Walker. “The Black Forest Fire damaged decades-old single-family dwellings and many outbuildings containing horses and barns.”
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