Assessment of Wildfire Damage Shows Monumental Impact

SAN FRANCISCO—While the wildfires last year did not approach the amount of destruction in either 2017 or 2018, nonetheless, the amount of damage and destruction in 2019 was significant. In this exclusive, CoreLogic’s insurance and spatial solutions group recently analyzed the numbers and provided insight into the construction costs associated with the damage.

Kincade Fire: 77,758 acres burned with approximately 36 damaged homes and 185 destroyed homes. Based on the latest data, the single-family homes have an estimated reconstruction cost value of $150 million.

Tick Fire: Based on current data, there were 601 single-family homes with an estimated reconstruction cost of $248 million.

Getty Fire: Some 745 acres burned. Based on current data, there were 162 single-family homes with an estimated reconstruction cost of $137 million.

In terms of impacts of the Kincade fire, CoreLogic’s construction cost estimates from 2016 to 2019 reflect an increase of 11% for the zip codes around the Kincade fire. Each value is a cumulative increase from early 2016.

“Having only stopped burning on November 6, 2019, assessing true demand surge from the Kincade fire is premature at this point,” Tom Larsen, principal of CoreLogic’s insurance and spatial solutions group, tells GlobeSt.com. “What we do know is that several factors contribute to a prolonged recovery from wildfires in California and include first, overlap in reconstruction efforts from prior fires and strict California building requirements leads to a shortage of available contractors, second, demand surge can last 6 to 12 months and can increase costs anywhere from 15 to 30%, and finally, many homeowners may be underinsured.”