232244

Kelowna  

All eyes on Fort Mac

While the population of Fort McMurray is insignificant globally, the impact and damage caused by the 2016 wildfire will have far-reaching effects.

“No one really appreciated or considered the massive concentration of value in such a remote location exposed to the wildland fire,” said Dan Sandick with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, quoting a leader in the insurance industry.

“This is set to be the number 1 wildfire loss event in the world, for insurance.”

Fort McMurray now leads the list of the top 10 most expensive insured loss events in Canadian history.

While numbers are still being calculated, the insured loss of the 2016 fire ranges from $3.6-$4.7 billion USD.

“Far in excess of anything we've ever seen before in Canada,” said Sandick.

In fact, the Fort McMurray fire is now in the top 40 most expensive loss events for the insurance industry in history.

“At the very top there are the big events we can all expect like, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy and the Japanese earthquake, but on that list is that high estimate for Fort McMurray and there is no other wildland loss event on that list.”

Sandick explained that from an insurance industry perspective, the devastating Fort McMurray fire was a severe loss.

He said that these relatively smaller towns like Fort Mac and Slave Lake had enough fire damage to put them in the top 10 wildland loss events in the world.

“It is shocking to look at the numbers. Fort McMurray, in terms of population, is an insignificant city in the world, but it is number 39 as most expensive insured loss events in the world.”

This information comes from The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, founded in 1997 by the insurance industry with a mission to reduce the risk of loss of life or property due to severe weather, earthquakes, etc.

Executive director Paul Kovacs told the Wildland Fire Conference in Kelowna on Tuesday that they as academics are urging insurance companies to invest more money in the rebuild to prevent future catastrophe.

“When you have a disaster you should put things back and put it back better, so it is more resilient than before,” said Kovacs.

“Don't just rebuild Fort McMurray, put it back better than it was before.”

Suggestions to insurance companies include things like building homes with fire resilient roofs, siding and windows. Homes more resilient to extreme weather, basement flooding etc.

“The overall cost for the companies to do better is just a few hundred dollars, a thousand dollars at most,” said Kovacs.

He argues that insurance companies had an amazing opportunity to significantly reduce risk through the rebuilding process.

“From a global point of view Fort McMurray is a big deal,” said Kovacs. “It is not only the biggest lost in Canada, the biggest fire in Canada, on a global scale it is being looked at all around the world. The world is watching, what we do right and what we do wrong.”  



More Kelowna News