A year after the Marshall Fire devastated suburban Colorado in the dead of winter, property/casualty insurers worldwide are grappling with the new realities of wildfire risk. They’ll need a three-pronged approach to avoid getting burned.
As someone who started my career as a claims adjuster, I’ve seen firsthand the financial and emotional misery unleashed by catastrophes like the Marshall Fire. I know the pain behind the words of people like Louisville, Colo., resident Nan Boultbee, who lost everything she owned when the blaze leveled her four-bedroom home last December.
“This is overwhelming for us,” she told the New York Times (‘I Have Absolutely Nothing’: After a Massive Winter Fire, What Is Left?) “We don’t have a home to go home to.” She was also far from alone. Fueled by 110-mile-per-hour winds, the inferno incinerated 1,000 homes and businesses across 6,000 acres even as forecasted snowfall threatened to freeze water pipes, the New York Times reported.