August 8, 2024, marked one year since the Lahaina Fires in Maui, which scorched approximately 6,500 acres and destroyed over 2,200 structures, leaving the Lahaina community devastated. While this event highlighted the vulnerability of certain regions to wildfires, it also underscored a growing trend: the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires across the United States.

This year alone, as of mid-July, more than 24,000 wildfires burned over 3 million acres nationwide. California remains particularly at risk, with over 3,800 wildfires already affecting nearly 200,000 acres. Such figures highlight the urgent need for effective wildfire risk management strategies, especially in the face of a changing climate.

The recently released CoreLogic 2024 Wildfire Risk Report examines the current wildfire risk landscape across the U.S., offering valuable insights for communities, insurers, and policymakers alike. The report not only quantifies wildfire risks at the national, state, and metropolitan levels, but also provides an overview of risk mitigation strategies, regulatory changes, and recovery efforts.

One of the report’s key findings is the staggering number of homes at risk in the western U.S. Over 2.6 million homes are at moderate or greater risk, with a combined reconstruction cost value of $1.2 trillion. California, Colorado, and Texas lead in the number of at-risk homes, many of which are located in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)—areas where homes are in close proximity to forested or undeveloped lands, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires.

California also faces a unique regulatory change. In June 2024, the California Department of Insurance (CDI) unveiled a new plan allowing insurers to use catastrophe models in ratemaking only if insurers increase their writing of policies in high wildfire risk areas.

The CoreLogic report also examines the effectiveness of various wildfire mitigation strategies, highlighting the findings of a study funded by the California Resilience Challenge Grant. Following the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, a collaborative study by the Town of Paradise, Milliman, Inc., and CoreLogic assessed individual- and community-level wildfire mitigation approaches to estimate wildfire risk reduction and the impact on homeowners insurance premiums in California’s wildland urban interface (WUI).

Finally, the CoreLogic report provides an update on Lahaina’s recovery, emphasizing the slow but steady progress being made. With nearly all damaged lots cleared, the rebuilding process has begun, though challenges remain, particularly in terms of labor availability.

Know Your Risk. Accelerate Your Recovery.™

By understanding the current risk landscape and implementing effective mitigation strategies, we can better safeguard our communities against the devastating impact of wildfires. To learn more of this year’s key findings about the growing threat of wildfires and how communities can become more resilient, read the CoreLogic 2024 Wildfire Risk Report.

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