I don’t see that the risk is any higher than it was during the rim fire. And if anything, we’ve taken many steps as a community to make that risk much less. So why then do the insurance rates continue to increase?

Sure. So I think going back to once again, and we’re kind of using like the rim fire, right, as just a point in time. Prior to that, once again, we were paying the exact same rate up here. If you had a fire hydrant within a thousand feet, lived within 5 miles of a fire station as you did in the city of and I think we can both agree that a house in Twain Harte that’s surrounded by trees and brush right, is a different risk than that in the middle of Modesto.

And so these fires started occurring in a more frequently, and burning much higher levels of acreage after the rim fire. And so the insurance company said, oh, wait a second here. If this is potentially a new trend where we’re going to see these larger fires that are burning hundreds of thousands of acres, we need to take a look at our risk and our portfolio and where we’re insured because, at the end of the day, they got to pay out. Right. Insurance is a contract.

So what had happened there is certain companies started pulling out the market. It was very few of them, but certain of them kind of were on the front end of this.

And then those preceding the we look at like the Tubbs fire in Napa and Sonoma. And when you get a wind-driven fire that’s crossing the freeway, six lanes of freeway, and it’s interesting because I took a close eye on that fire.

And when you have a fire that’s able to cross that much freeway and then burn down a concrete tilt-up, because what happens is with these fires, they’re wind-driven with the Embers. Right. So it just takes one or two Embers getting inside. So when you have a concrete tilt-up getting burned from the inside out, it changed the game in the insurance industry. And them going, oh my goodness.

Those handful of carriers that pulled out prior to these large fires, their decision was confirmed.

What’s your role? So you don’t actually sell the insurance, you connect people. If I’m buying a home in the community, you connect me with an insurance provider. That’s kind of the role.

We’d be happy to review your insurance coverage options with you! Give us a call at (209) 532-5102 or visit https://caldwell-insurance.com.