In what might sound like a red-flag warning, the Oregon Department of Forestry has dropped its firefighting insurance.
Longer and more complex fire seasons have inflated the cost of insurance and diminished its usefulness, said ODF spokesperson Jessica Prakke.
This year, Lloyds of London offered a plan with a $78.5 million deductible that would pay out a maximum of $25 million. Prakke told KLCC it’s highly unlikely the state would ever meet that deductible.
“To give perspective," she said, "in 2020, the insurance policy was not used, because of eligible costs. Because FEMA reimbursements don’t count towards the eligible costs, and anything that’s reimbursed back to the state doesn’t get counted in that.”
Prakke said Oregon can potentially apply the $4 million it would have spent on the insurance policy on wildfire prevention efforts.
The policy originated in 1973, and was the only one of its kind in the nation. The biggest bump in the deductible came last year. The state opted to keep the policy then, but lawmakers wanted to revisit its usefulness.
The ODF said letting the insurance go will have no effect on the department’s ability to fight fires.
