Tom Torres, director of the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management (DFFM), told Coconino County supervisors that a new state law, HB 2054, establishes an Insurance Review Task Force that will require insurers to report aggregated homeowner policy information annually to the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DiFi).

"I am not an insurance expert, but I will tell you what I've learned over the last year," Torres said, and described the task force’s purpose: to get hard data on premiums, nonrenewals and cancellations so policymakers can identify trends and recommend steps to reduce home ignition risk.

The law requires each insurer that writes homeowners insurance in Arizona to report certain policy information to DiFi no later than April 1 of each year. Torres said DFFM will also identify geographic areas of "heightened fire risk" using the public wildfirerisk.org model and provide quarter-mile map delineations; insurers will be asked to report information for structures inside those areas.

Torres emphasized that the maps are intended to inform policy and data collection, not to dictate insurers’ private underwriting decisions. "This is not intended to do that. Insurance companies are private companies. They make their own business decisions," he said, adding that DFFM will use federal, peer-reviewed modeling so the state’s delineations align with accepted methods.

County leaders pressed for concrete outcomes for homeowners. Supervisor Ontiveros asked whether the task force could compel insurers to say which mitigation steps actually reduce risk for underwriting. Torres replied that insurers will sit on the task force and the group’s goal is to identify "mitigations that matter" so homeowners know which actions are likely to influence coverage or rates.

Torres relayed several data points he said shaped the task force’s work: the number of housing units in Arizona’s wildland-urban interface (WUI) more than doubled from 1990 to 2020, the state had roughly 1,400,000 homes in the WUI by the dataset cited, and Coconino County had over 64,000 homes considered in the WUI in 2020. He also said, "90% of homes that ignite in a wildfire are total losses," highlighting insurers’ focus on a structure’s ignitability.

On confidentiality and use of data, Torres said DiFi will publish aggregated, de-identified premium and coverage data under Arizona statute so the public can see trends without exposing individual property records. The task force can form ad hoc technical workgroups and consult standards such as recent IBHS wildfire standards and WUI code guidance.

Torres described task force membership and timeline: DiFi’s acting director, Maria Alor, will chair and Torres will serve as vice chair; Torres said he will appoint four wildfire experts and named Paul Ochoge (Flagstaff), Randy Chevalier (Timber Mesa), Aaron Kassem (DFFM Firewise manager) and Barbara Rice (building-code specialist) among those who have received appointment letters. DiFi will name three additional representatives from the insurance industry and code community. Appointments are for two years, and Torres said the group will formally convene in January.

Supervisors and county staff asked Torres what legislative or budgetary help the state needs. Torres listed two near-term priorities: a more secure wildfire suppression fund and statutory modernization for the State Fire Marshal’s office to clarify code authority. He also described federal advocacy to protect mitigation funding and noted DFFM frequently advances reimbursement and cost-share payments to local districts, including referencing a $20,000,000 account used to pay cooperating local fire districts during larger incidents.

The next procedural steps Torres outlined were the task force kickoff in January, the collection of insurer reports (annual by April 1), and the group’s work to translate data and mitigation science into recommendations for codes, defensible-space ordinances and homeowner guidance. Torres invited county engagement and offered to share legislative talking points and materials for supervisors’ advocacy.

The task force is positioned as a data-driven venue to bridge wildfire science, building practice and insurance market signals; supervisors said they will continue to collaborate on federal and state advocacy and asked to receive periodic updates on the task force’s work.