Extreme wildfire risk affects 775,654 US homes, finds CoreLogic report

There are 775,654 US homes at extreme risk of wildfire, according to CoreLogic analysts.

In its 2019 Wildfire Risk report, the company said that homes in California and Texas are most vulnerable, rating them at ‘high’ and ‘extreme’ risk. Analysis found that 240,580 homes in California are at extreme risk with an estimated reconstruction cost value (RCV) of $92.62 billion if a catastrophe happened. Properties in the Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego metro areas came top for being at an ‘elevated risk’ level.

In Texas, 174,038 homes are at extreme risk of wildfire, with an estimated RCV of $32.30 billion, the report said.

Due to both their larger geographic size and large populations, California and Texas lead the US in the number of residences and RCV in the high- and extreme-risk categories, the report said.

“Both states contain fuels and terrain that contribute to higher risk classifications and have population centers near high-risk areas.”

The state of Colorado, which has experienced several record-setting fires since 2010, was ranked third for the number of homes in both the high and extreme categories.

The RCV follows the same pattern with California, Colorado and Texas containing the largest values due to the large number of homes in the high- and extreme-risk categories.

In 2018, the US saw “record-breaking wildfires” with 8,767,492 acres burned, roughly equivalent to the area of 74 of the 75 largest cities in the United States combined, CoreLogic said, adding: “This is the sixth highest total since modern historical records began in the mid-1900s.”

Wildfire is a unique peril, analysts explained, because the level of damage is often "binary".

“A home is either left untouched by the fire or a total loss occurs. A patchwork of devastation occurs as fires pass by some properties indiscriminately while surrounding homes are reduced to ash.
"Unlike flooding or hail, it can and often does result in a 100 percent loss of the structure.
"Post-event studies have shown that structural hardening increases a home’s resistance to fire, but all too often luck seems to play a part, too.”

CoreLogic said that no US state is completely free from wildfire risk “but historic wildfire data indicates that the 13 western states are the most commonly affected and have an expectation of property losses due to wildfire”.

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