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Insurance-backed research group urges home- and neighborhood-level steps to reduce wildfire ignitions
Summary
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) presented its Wildfire Prepared standards and neighborhood methodology, recommending ember-resistant retrofits, defensible-space policing (especially the 0–5-foot zone), and community-level action to prevent conflagrations and increase survivability and insurability of homes.
Michael Newman, general counsel for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), told the board Sept. 30 that science-based building and landscape changes at the parcel and neighborhood level can reduce home ignitions and the risk of conflagration when wildfires enter communities.
IBHS researchers use full-scale testing to replicate ember storms and wildfire exposure and to identify practical mitigations. Newman described two IBHS products: Wildfire Prepared Home, a voluntary parcel-level designation that focuses on ember-resistance and core mitigations (roof, vents, defensible 0–5-foot zone); and Wildfire Prepared Home Plus, which adds measures to address flames and radiant heat.
Newman said embers are the most common mechanism for structure ignition and that the 0–5-foot area closest to a home is disproportionately important; removal or replacement of combustible materials in that “first five feet” and ember-resistant vents and trim were among the highest-impact actions identified in IBHS testing.
IBHS also presented a Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood methodology that divides a neighborhood into ember and flame zones and sets designation thresholds (the group described success as limiting conflagration losses to under 10% of structures in a neighborhood). Newman said the IBHS designation requires independent verification (site inspection and photo documentation) and is operational in a handful of states; IBHS requires insurer, builder or state action to make its designation available in a new state.
Flagstaff fire officials and county staff discussed local programs and the multi-state WUI working group effort to collect parcel- and neighborhood-level mitigation data. Paul (Flagstaff fire representative) and Jay Chrisleman (county community development) explained existing assessment programs and the county’s consideration of building-code and land-use tools to encourage or require higher resilience for new construction and to incentivize retrofit work.
Supervisors asked about costs, insurance discount evidence and how local code or incentives might be used. Newman said the largest single cost for retrofits is typically defensible-space work; some mitigation steps are low-cost (ember-resistant vents, small exterior changes). He emphasized that insurers vary in their underwriting decisions but that verifiable, science-backed mitigation and neighborhood-level reductions should make homes more attractive to insurers.
