Wildfire related news and analysis

Update: Claims hit US $300m a few days after this article, read the latest here. Insurance claims from current season bushfires in Australia have now reached US $207 million (according to an Aon source), surpassing US $200 million according to the Insurance Council who now predict that losses will soar.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, the U.S. primary insurer, has benefited from another almost $8.5 million loss payment under its Caelus Re V Ltd. (Series 2017-1) Class D tranche of catastrophe bond notes, as reinsurance recoveries from that transaction continue.

Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E), the wildfire liability California focused electrical utility company, has now agreed the last of its major settlements with wildfire claimants, with a $13.5 billion agreement with individuals removing another hurdle that has stalled subrogation payments from making their way to beneficiaries.

Bush fires continue to burn across Australia and the mainstream media is now reporting over 500 homes destroyed in the recent outbreaks, while further warnings of catastrophic fire weather have been made as temperatures soar.

As bush fires burn out of control in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, the weather forecast authorities have raised the first ever warning of “catastrophic” bush fire conditions for the Sydney surroundings on Tuesday.

Updated Fri Nov 1st, 9:00am GMT to reflect latest property figures: California’s wildfires continued to burn overnight, with a number of new smaller blazes breaking out and now upwards of 400 structures destroyed, while firefighters made progress in containing the largest Kincade fire.

California wildfires have continued to burn their way through more acres and properties, with the largest Kincade fire still the most dangerous and an “extreme fire weather threat” forecast for the coming days.

Our latest wildfire update can be found here. California continues to be beset by dangerous fire weather conditions, with some of the strongest winds yet possible from Tuesday into Thursday, while the current wildfires are estimated to have put some $25 billion of property at severe risk of damage already.

Update: Our latest on the current wildfire outbreaks can be found here. Dangerous fire weather conditions are forecast to continue over the coming days, which threatens to help the growing Kincade wildfire expand even further and has caused the evacuation of close to 180,000 residents.

Update: Our latest on the current wildfire outbreaks can be found here. The Kincade wildfire has been burning out of control in an area of California’s Sonoma county around 70 miles north of San Francisco and as of the latest update the fire had spread to more than 16,000 acres with tens of structures already […]