Prepare, Respond, Restore

Wildfires have become increasingly more severe in the past several years, and that trend is not likely to stop soon. Most properties have prevention plans in place for onsite fires, but wildfire is in a risk category all on its own. There is no state, region, or city that is immune to wildfire. All of Washington was reminded of this fact by the tragic loss of the City of Malden in the 2020 Labor Day firestorm. With wildfire season approaching, we hope the following information and guidance is helpful to all members in preparing for and responding to wildfires.

BEFORE A WILDFIRE

Emergency Response and Business Continuity

While it is important to understand the difference between wildfires and structure fires, some prevention strategies do carry over, such as the following:

Wildfire Resilience for Property

Fire requires three elements to burn: heat, oxygen, and fuel. While heat and oxygen can be tricky to control, carefully monitoring the available fuel around properties is a great way to proactively defend against wildfires. There are also many ways to make property and structures more “fire resilient”. Consider implementing some of the following projects into your organization’s scheduled maintenance efforts – these range from strategies that are easy to implement or that you may already have in place, those which may require moderate planning and budgeting, and some which require significant time and investment.

Short-Term Strategies

Mid-Term Strategies

Long-Term Strategies

DURING A WILDFIRE

AFTER A WILDFIRE

Information for this article was taken from the Arrowhead Tribal blog post, “Wildfire safety tips for businesses,” which in turn used information from the Small Business Administration (SBA), Zurich North America (Wildfire PreparednessPre-Fire Plans), PropertyCasualty360 (Minimize Wildfire Risk11 Preventative Measures), and the Insurance Information Institute. If you have any questions regarding the materials in this article, please contact your broker or risk manager. Additional wildfire resources are available via the following links:

Washington State Department of Natural Resources

CAL FIRE: Ready for Wildfire

Washington State Department of Health

Ready.Gov