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Spokane wildfires destroy 700-plus structures as Farmers sets up claims help
Farmers deployed a catastrophe response team and opened a mobile claims center in Spokane Valley starting August 4, after the fires burned about 8,000 acres with zero containment.
Wildfires burning around Spokane, Washington, over the weekend of August 2 and 3 have destroyed more than 700 structures and forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate, according to state and federal officials. Three separate fires, managed together as the Spokane Complex, burned roughly 8,000 acres with no containment, including the Old Trails Fire at 3,619 acres, the Autumn Lane Fire at 3,351 acres, and the Fairview Fire at 1,056 acres, federal incident management said.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency and issued a burn ban through September 30. Incident commander Tom Clemo said aerial imagery indicated as many as 1,100 structures may have been destroyed, while stressing the estimate remains preliminary, and the governor and incident commander described the scale as unprecedented for the community.
Farmers Insurance has deployed its catastrophe response team to the Spokane area and is operating a mobile claims center at 5204 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley. The center opened August 4 and runs 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., serving Farmers, Foremost, and Bristol West customers, and residents can also submit claims online, by phone, or through the company mobile app.
The fires add to growing US wildfire exposure that insurers and brokers say is forcing recalibration nationwide. Insurance Business noted that a Triple-I brief cited more than 35,000 fires burned over three million acres nationwide in the first half of the year, and said Swiss Re data cited by Amwins shows wildfire’s share of total US insured catastrophe losses has risen from about 1% before 2015 to roughly 7% today.