What’s concerning about the Newfoundland wildfires?

Major claims adjusting firms haven’t seen many claims from the Newfoundland and Labrador wildfires last week, but the event has sparked concerns about cellular service during evacuations in the area.

“We do have losses reported to us that we’ve assigned adjusters to, mainly total loss residential claims,” Greg Smith, Canadian president of Crawford and Company (Canada) Inc. told Canadian Underwriter Monday. “We have been in communication with the policyholders but not yet travelled to the site until the local authorities declare it safe to do so.

“We do anticipate some logistical issues…related to cellular coverage in the region, travel distances to/from the loss as well as availability of supplies and materials,” he adds. “Fortunately, it is not a significant number of homes and businesses that have been impacted at this stage.”

Rannoch Harley, director of loss adjusting for Atlantic Canada with Crawford Canada, said as of early Monday morning, there were 45 or more structures with direct physical fire damage. The damage ranges from partial losses to total and constructive total losses.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Justice and Public Safety said more than 20 structures — houses and garages — were impacted by a wildfire near Adam’s Cove, north of Carbonear, in a public advisory from May 8. There was also damage to a warehouse containing recreational vehicles.

“Thus far, we have only been in discussions with clients about physical fire damage claims, though we anticipate that there could also be incidents of smoke damage and [additional living expense] claims on account of prohibited access due to the state of emergency that was declared and evacuation orders,” Harley adds.

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ClaimsPro said Tuesday it hadn’t seen any claim assignments resulting from these wildfires come through, adding the location is very rural. “Our Newfoundland and other Maritime leaders remain on standby and ready to assist immediately as needed.”

Insurance Bureau of Canada also deployed its Virtual Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion (V-CAMP) to provide insurance information to affected residents.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador was closely monitoring two wildfires as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 8: one near Adam’s Cove and another near Holyrood, one kilometre from Butterpot Park. Fires located in the vicinity of Badger and Fermeuse were listed as under control.

Portion of town evacuated

The community of Adam’s Cove declared a state of emergency, and a portion of the town was evacuated. The wildfire was approximately 600 hectares in size. The second wildfire posed “no immediate threats to infrastructure or the community,” the provincial government says in the advisory.

The evacuation order and state of emergency for the Town of Small Point-Adam’s Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove were lifted on May 9.

But some residents in that rural town told CBC News they couldn’t make phone calls or check on their homes during the evacuation. Adam’s Cove resident Pauline White, who says she’s been concerned about the lack of cell service in the region for years, said she was essentially cut off from important information and updates.

“We had a cell phone that we couldn’t use,” she says, as quoted by CBC. “There was no wi-fi, no cell signal.

“I couldn’t get a hold of any of my family to let them know that we were OK. I couldn’t let anybody know about the house.”

Local councillor Sue Rose adds poor service is the number one concern she hears from tourists who visit the region each year.

“That’s long been a challenge in this region of the province,” Steve Crocker, the provincial Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology, says of cell service coverage in a CBC video. “It is a significant challenge and when you see circumstances like that happened this past week, it even brings it [to a] highlighted need.”

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.