Insured Loss Estimates Top $600M From Washington Fires, Testing New Commissioner
Article 0 Comments The wildfires that plagued Washington for nearly half the summer put new Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer and her office to a test. Kuderer has been in office for over a year-and-a-half. However, she’s relatively new considering her predecessor, Washington Commissioner of Insurance Mike Kreidler, was the nation’s longest serving commissioner, having held the office since 2001. The magnitude of what she and the Office of The Insurance Commissioner are dealing with is best stated in numbers: the blazes resulted in the most expensive fire damage in Washington history, and Spokane County Assessor Tom Konis puts rebuilding costs from three recent wildfires at more than $1 billion. The industry is projecting $600 million in insured losses to date from wildfires in the state, with the bulk of that coming from residential losses at roughly $535 million, according to figures out from the OIC on Tuesday. While those figures encompass all wildfires in the state, most of the expected losses are from the Spokane Complex Fire, which was comprised by the Old Trails, Fairview and Autumn Lane fires that burned nearly 10,000 acres and destroyed some 900 structures. A recent analysis from property data provider Cotality identified 5,256 properties...