Intact Financial Corp. announced it has partnered with Montana-based Wildfire Defense Systems to launch a new wildfire loss prevention and suppression service available to the majority of residential homes in Alberta and British Columbia.Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer is rolling out a new fire prevention pilot project this summer that will deploy trained fire experts to homes in Western Canada that are in the line of active wildfires.
Services may include removing materials from around the property that may fuel a fire ; covering exterior vents, doors and windows to prevent embers from entering the home; setting up temporary sprinkler systems to increase humidity and lower temperatures; or in some cases spraying fire retardant on properties.
Climate change has been driving up the cost of home insurance premiums, with disaster claims in Canada more than quadrupling over the past 15 years, accounting for $3.1-billion of insured losses in 2023. That is up from just $400-million in 2008, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Fires that ripped through B.C.’s Okanagan Valley, devastating parts of West Kelowna, cost more than $720-million, making it that province’s costliest insured event. And while Alberta’s 2016 blaze in Fort McMurray remains the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, with $9.9-billion in damages , the increase in frequency of events is driving higher overall losses.