On Aug. 8, the Bug Fire began burning north of Reno. Two days later, the Stallion Fire began burning in parts of California and Nevada. Now, the Hawk Fire has burned over 15,000 acres in the same region. These are the first significant fires in a populated part of Northern Nevada since Assembly Bill 376 (AB 376) took effect on Jan. 1.
The bill created a four-year Regulatory Experimentation Program that allows property insurers, with approval from the insurance commissioner, to sell homeowners policies that “exclude the peril of wildfire from the coverage provided.” The law does not require an insurer to offer wildfire coverage separately, and it does not cap what an insurer can charge if it does. It gives insurers permission to remove a protection that homeowners policies have traditionally included.
The law also defines a wildfire as an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that originated outside any residential or commercial property. This definition has never been applied to an actual claim in Nevada before. Recent reporting indicates that Bug, Stallion and Hawk fires all resulted from human activity. Does that mean that future damage from man-made fires will be excluded under wildfire coverage?…