17 November 2017Insurance

California Wildfire losses could exceed $10bn

Losses from the California Wildfires will reach between $8 billion and $10.5 billion, according to risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide, which has now conducted a damage survey and acquired new information about policy terms, and a re-examined the replacement values of high-value homes within its industry exposure database (IED).

AIR’s loss estimates represent damage to residential, mobile home, commercial, and automobile lines of business, as well as direct business interruption losses; they include demand surge (increases in rebuild costs that result from shortages of labor and materials), but do not contemplate extra expenses such as debris removal.

It stressed that uncertainty remains regarding losses to vineyards and wineries. “While AIR does not expect losses to wineries and vineyards to constitute the major part of the losses from these fires (residential losses are expected to dominate), it may be that the value of the equipment, machinery, and inventory at the wineries may exceed the contents values contemplated in AIR’s Industry Exposure Database,” it said.

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More on this story

Insurance
13 November 2017   The recent wildfires in the US state of California, which killed at least 43 people and injured 185 others, could in aggregation become the most damaging event on record in the state, according to Impact Forecasting’s latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap.
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30 November 2017   Property/casualty insurer Chubb has revealed its preliminary fourth quarter loss estimates from natural catastrophes of approximately $320 million before taxes (or $249 million after tax).
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6 December 2017   Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings estimated the losses from the October 2017 California Wildfires will have a net negative impact of $90 million on its fourth quarter 2017 results of operations.