More than 13,000 homes with a combined reconstruction cost of over US$3 billion at risk from Washington wildfire: CoreLogic

More than 13,000 homes with a combined reconstruction cost of over US$3 billion are at some level of risk from the Chelan wildfire in the state of Washington, CoreLogic, Inc. said on Wednesday.

The global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider said in its Wildfire Hazard Risk Report that a total of 13,121 homes are at risk. Of that total, 634 homes, or 5%, with a total reconstruction cost of more than US$198 million are at “maximum” or “moderately high” risk of damage. Although the majority of homes – 12,156 or 93% – are at “minimal” risk, “wildfire can easily expand to adjacent properties and cause significant damage even if the property is not considered high risk in its own right,” CoreLogic said in a press release. [click image below to enlarge]

The reconstruction cost for the 12,156 “minimal” risk homes is more than $3.3 billion.

An additional 331 homes are at “moderately low” risk, at a reconstruction cost of about US$92 million. The reconstruction cost values represent estimates to rebuild the home, taking into account labour and materials, and are based on 100% or total destruction of the residential structure. Depending upon the size of the wildfire, there may be less than 100% damage to the residence, which would result in a lower realized reconstruction cost, the release noted. [click image below to enlarge]

“Even though we haven’t seen the type of wildfire activity over the last few years that seemed to be thematic in the 2000s, there have been record setting wildfire events even during the recent periods of overall reduced wildfire numbers,” the report said.

Awareness of wildfire hazard and geospatial knowledge of the risk as it relates to homes and businesses is vitally important for the insurance and mortgages industries, the report said, as well as for municipalities and homeowners.

“If recent wildfire trends have shown us anything, it is that wildfire risk is a real and immediate threat to many homes in the western U.S.,” the report said. “As property development continues to expand outward from urban areas and into the Wildland-Urban Interface, the number of homes exposed to the risk and the amount of damage realized each year could continue to increase.”