Sonoma County has been fighting for a state “fire safe road” exemption…..these neighbors are saying no and fighting the exemption with the Board of Forestry who so far have said no. The County is appealing this….what are they thinking?
“As fire losses pile up, insurers may soon flee”
Thank you good neighbor Nancy B. for this post!
This N.Y. Times article was picked up by the Press Democrat and appeared in the 9/3 paper on page B 1. It was titled: “As fire losses pile up, insurers may soon flee”. It covers the looming problem of home fire insurance non-renewals. Insurers are widely expect to continue their retreat making some homes essentially uninsurable. The problem of non-renewals has become so bad that the state’s insurance commissioner, Richard Lara, banned companies from dropping people in or near ZIP codes struck by recent wildfires. That move covered at least 800,000 homes, lasts just 12 months and can’t be extended. It will expire this December.
140,000 of those 800,00 policy holders live in Sonoma County. They live in 29 zip codes which are: 95403, 95404, 95492, 95448, 95425, 94515, 95461, 95441, 94928, 95401, 95409, 95407, 95405, 95451, 94574, 95446, 95436, 95467, 95457, 95442, 94951, 95445, 95421, 94508, 95449, 95452, 95439, 94567, and 94576. All of this information is on the State Insurance Commissioners WEB site.
County officials have not addressed this problem but instead recently approved fire regulations that will allow more development (both commercial and residential) in the wildfire urban interface, the WUI. The State Board of Forestry has not certified these regs.
From The New York Times:
Wildfires Hasten Another Climate Crisis: Homeowners Who Can’t Get Insurance
Insurers, facing huge losses, have been pulling back from fire-prone areas across California. “The marketplace has largely collapsed,” an advocate for counties in the state said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/climate/wildfires-insurance.html?smid=em-share