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FM buys FortressFire to bring physics-based wildfire modeling in-house
The acquisition adds structure-level ignition and mitigation assessments to FM’s commercial property underwriting, as wildfire insured catastrophe losses rose to $107 billion in 2025, with wildfires and severe storms making up 83%.
Insurance Business reports that commercial property insurer FM has acquired FortressFire, a wildfire intelligence company that combines machine learning with physics-based fire modeling. Financial terms were not disclosed.
FM, which insures many large commercial and industrial properties and counts one in four Fortune 500 companies among its policyholders, said the FortressFire platform will support engineering-led loss prevention. The model is designed to assess whether a specific structure will ignite and what steps could prevent it, rather than focusing only on fire probability.
FortressFire’s outputs include aerial wildfire reports, ground inspections, monitoring, analytics, and mitigation assessments used across the insurance chain, including insurers, reinsurers, brokers, lenders, and property owners. FM said FortressFire will operate as an independent, wholly owned division under its own brand and leadership.
The deal comes as wildfire losses mount globally, according to the Swiss Re Institute estimate that global insured catastrophe losses reached $107 billion in 2025, with wildfires and severe storms accounting for 83% of that total. Insurance Business also notes that more than 20 US states have accepted AI-driven wildfire models in rate filings, and regulators are moving in the same direction.