A proposal that officials hope could help preserve access to homeowners insurance policies in Valley County was introduced on Monday to Valley County Commissioners.
The conceptual proposal, developed by the Valley County Fire Working Group, involves dividing the county into zones based on wildfire risk factors and applying fire-resilient building standards to zones with extreme danger.
“What it does is make it safer to defend, easier to defend, and we could possibly save some homes or stop it before it reaches the home,” said Donnelly Fire Chief Juan Bonilla, who also serves as the county’s emergency manager. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to lose homes. It just means it gives us a better opportunity to have successes as fires come through the landscape.”
The proposal comes as many insurance companies have started withdrawing policies from some existing homes or pulling out of Valley County altogether amid increased fears of wildfire.
“I heard just last year in the Donnelly district, there were 40 people who lost their insurance and had to shop,” Bonilla told the commissioners.
McCall Fire Chief Garrett de Jong echoed Bonilla, but was unsure of the numbers of homes affected in the McCall Fire Protection District.
“I think the worst of that is yet to come,” de Jong said.
Building standards undecided
Specific building standards that could apply to high-risk zones have not yet been developed, but would likely be based on the Wildland Urban Interface International Fire Code.
Mainly, that would require the use of fire-resistant building materials like metal, stone, and concrete, as well as fire-resistant landscaping.
“Just throwing up Hardy board or a Class A shingle roof that’s fire resistant isn’t enough,” Bonilla said. “The inner workings of the building need to be fire resilient.”
Use of fire-resistant materials reduces the risk of homes igniting from airborne embers from nearby homes or vegetation that is burning.
Bonilla referenced recent pictures of some Los Angeles homes that appeared nearly unscathed in neighborhoods ravaged by wildfires that destroyed more than 10,000 structures.
Without donors like you, this story would not exist.
Make a donation of any size here
“Generally, it’s because those were someone who was conscientious in the fact that they did a little extra work,” he said.
Risk mapping
Also still to be developed is a risk assessment map that models wildfire risk based on accessibility, vegetation, slope, and defensibility, among other factors.
There are several types of software that could be used to develop that map, which Bonilla hopes to complete by this summer.
That includes XyloPlan, which focuses on identifying likely “fire pathways” to help officials plan prevention efforts. Fire pathways are based on topography, weather, vegetation, structures, and infrastructure.
Another option is Land Tender, which creates interactive maps capable of modeling different fire scenarios.
“The interactive map consists of over 70 layers representing land management data, such as natural features, human-created assets, fire danger, drought conditions, and economic potential and risk,” according to the website
Insurance benefits not guaranteed
Although the proposal would improve safety and wildfire resiliency across the county, Bonilla noted that it is not guaranteed to affect wildfire risk calculations by insurance companies.
“Insurance is a whole different ballgame because they have their own investigators,” he said.
Michael Gurney of Farmers Insurance in McCall told Valley Lookout that he is skeptical the risk maps or stricter building codes would sway most insurance carriers.
“I think the insurance companies are going to stay with the FEMA maps is the only thing,” Gurney said.
Gurney said Farmers had not dropped any existing policyholders but has been more selective in writing new policies in Valley County.
Farm Bureau Insurance is in the same boat, according to Darin Pfost, a Farm Bureau agent. Pfost listed several reasons why insurance companies have become pickier about issuing policies in Valley County in recent years.
One reason is that some major providers have dropped out of the market even amid rapid growth, leaving fewer companies to spread the risk burden between.
“Part of the issue is we’re running into saturation in areas,” Pfost said.
Inflation, natural disasters to blame
An uptick in natural disasters across the country is part of what Pfost believes is driving companies to pull out of markets like Valley County.
Meanwhile, inflation has driven up the cost to repair or rebuild homes at a higher rate than insurance rates have increased.
“There’s just been so many natural disasters that you can’t change the rate fast enough to compensate for that,” Pfost said. “It’s just kind of what you’d call the perfect storm—or the imperfect storm.”
Pfost was unable to provide the names of specific companies that have pulled out of Valley County, but said there are “at least two, maybe three or four.”
Jason Bergquist, who owns Kirk-FIG Insurance in downtown McCall and brokers policies for clients from several different companies, backed up Pfost’s claim.
“There are some carriers that just won’t even write in our zip code,” Bergquist told Valley Lookout.
Bergquist suggested that some companies are having their hands forced by reinsurance policies, which provide coverage to insurance companies to reduce liability.
“Since those reinsurers have tightened up their underwriting guidelines and reduced their capacity…that’s affecting the insurance companies underneath them on where they’ll offer policies, or if they’re allowed to, really, to keep working with their reinsurer,” he said.
While Bergquist does not see the county’s proposal as a “quick fix” for what he called a “hard market” for insurance, he is optimistic it could gain traction with some insurance companies.
“I think it could be helpful,” he said, citing the potential for fire-resilient construction to factor into wildfire scores calculated by insurance companies.
