Just 8% of bushfire damage hits Australia’s urban areas, reveals analyst

Just 10 percent of 500,000km2 damaged by Australia's ferocious bushfires are urban and residential (8 percent), and agricultural (2 percent) areas, according to analysis from McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS).

The firm, which uses military grade intelligence combined with democratised satellite data, said that the country’s national parks have borne 90 percent of the damage in South East Australia so far, devastating its wildlife and ecology.

Four months into the Australian bushfires and the estimated claims on losses are around A$1.34 billion ($924 million), according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA). This means that the urban and agricultural insurance losses account for around $92.4 million. In comparison, the California wildfires, which affected a much smaller area, around 15,000km2, brought insurance claims of around $12 billion in November alone, according to California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.

Forbes McKenzie, CEO of MIS, told Intelligent Insurer: “The California fires damaged highly residential areas and vineyards whereas in Australia this damage has been in more remote areas, so from an insurance perspective the damage isn’t as bad.”

With its remote sensing abilities, MIS aims to offer insurers a clearer picture of their exposure and the impact a disaster will have on customers’ homes and businesses, consulting insurance teams months and years after the catastrophe.

“We can provide precise and accurate information that enables insurance companies to project how their portfolio will be impacted by the fires,” said Vicky Mills, chief product officer at MIS. She added that this information can help insurers to set aside the right amount of reserves without taking up too much of their working capital.

MIS supports claims teams in working out their exposure within 24 hours by using real time satellite reporting that is able to see through clouds and detect infrared hot spots on the ground, the firm said. The company is currently working on an AI system with the European Space Agency that will provide real time data to a carrier when a property has been effected by an event.