New pilot project between Intact Financial Corp. and Wildfire Defense Systems Inc. teams help to fireproof hundreds of residential homes from a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta.Supplied
Just days after Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer announced a new fire-prevention project for the Western part of the country, multiple teams of trained professionals were already packing up their gear in southern Montana. Hours later, they were in the suburbs of Fort McMurray, Alta., to help fireproof hundreds of residential homes from a blaze that was closing in on the city.
The deployment is part of a new pilot project between Intact Financial Corp. IFC-T and Wildfire Defense Systems Inc. (WDS) – one of the largest private wildfire agencies in North America that has been contracted to provide home policyholders in Alberta and British Columbia a second line of defence when battling wildfires in 2024.
The WDS organization, based in Bozeman, Mont., has been offering wildfire loss-prevention programs for insurers since 2008. It sends experts, including retired firefighters, to policyholders’ homes that are threatened by a wildfire that is less than five kilometres away.
The crews help clear materials from around the property that may fuel a fire (such as propane tanks, furniture or grass clippings), as well as cover exterior vents, doors and windows to prevent embers from entering the home; set up temporary sprinkler systems to increase humidity and lower temperatures; or in some cases, spray fire retardant or fire gel on properties.
While the collaboration between WDS and insurance companies is common in the United States – where a number of insurers are reporting profit losses in dozens of states – Intact says it is the first such arrangement in Canada.
Over the past 15 years, disaster claims in Canada have more than quadrupled, accounting for $3.1-billion of insured losses in 2023. That is up from just $400-million in 2008, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Last year, Intact paid out more than $1-billion in natural-disaster claims, with a significant portion related to wildfires. The increase led the company to take pause and study the impact a three-to-five-degree global-warming scenario could have on the business.
“After the 2023 wildfire season, we sought out some concrete ways to help communities and our customers to adapt,” said Julie Nolette, vice-president of personal lines for Intact Insurance West, Ontario and Atlantic Divisions. “We knew that we could do more.”
Then, on May 10 – just three days after the launch of the pilot project – a wildfire was detected on the outskirts of Fort McMurray. Local officials put residents on alert to evacuate.
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Almost immediately, Intact’s front-line workers and the company’s network of independent insurance brokers began to quickly reach out to policyholders in the Fort McMurray area to alert them about the new service.
“We knew that we were going against the clock when it came to implementation,” Ms. Nolette said. “So, although we plan for the best scenario, we also have a plan to quickly turn around and mobilize the team.”
By the morning of May 14, several fire task forces were already on the ground in Fort McMurray.
The number of resources that are deployed to a wildfire can vary by region and incident, WDS’s chief executive, David Torgerson, said in an interview. In Fort McMurray, the number of task forces may change depending on the condition of the fire.
But on Friday, he said there were multiple task forces, and each team could have about a dozen individuals, including a team leader, a water tender truck and hand crews to carry fire equipment. The equipment – including the fire engines – have the same specifications, pumps and inspections as the public-service wildfire equipment.
For WDS, the deployment is just like any “regular day” at the office, Mr. Torgerson said. The company monitors wildfires across North America 365 days a year and has responded to 1,300 wildfires across 22 states, including California, which has seen major insurers exit the market.
“We are supplemental to the incident for the survivability of properties,” he added. “If we service a property, it is like we are removing it off the fire map. If there’s dozens or hundreds or even thousands of properties in the line of a fire, and if we engage to serve across those properties, then it’s like the fire can’t see them as much.”
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The wildfires are tracked at the WDS North American Co-ordination Center in Montana, a “NASA-like” command hub filled with two dozen cubical style desks facing a wall of multiple computer screens. The centre can track wildfires – and dispatch teams – using more than 100 different sources of information, such as satellite heat signatures.
The data allow WDS to know when fires are going to threaten properties and the exact timing of when to dispatch teams with enough “window of opportunity” to get there in advance of a fire.
“We need to get set up, get co-ordinated and get permission to operate on the incident under the policy and procedures that are required,” Mr. Torgerson said. “But we also needed to get to [Fort McMurray] before the fire would make a jump and start moving, and those jumps are in the afternoon.”
When the team arrived in Fort McMurray early in the morning, the fire was about 19 kilometres away from town.
“That allowed our crews enough time to start working through the neighbourhoods, preparing properties to survive the fire,” he added. “What’s going to ignite any particular property is unique to that property … any given property may not need very much and another property may need everything that we can bring to the equation.”
By the end of the week, the wildfire had reached about 5.5 kilometres from town, covering nearly 20,000 hectares. However, favourable weather conditions such as cooler temperatures, weaker winds and overnight rain had prevented any significant spread.
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But WDS has not pulled back its services. The task-force teams continue to work 12-hour days to secure the hundreds of properties in the area.
“At the end of the day, you need to get the right people there at the right time,” Mr. Torgerson said. “If we can spend about an hour on the property, before the fire gets there, then come back and secure it after the fire passes over, then we are highly successful with those properties being survivable.”
The Intact pilot project, which will continue until the end of this year, will automatically be added to home insurance policies to all B.C. and Alberta residents for no additional cost. Once the threat of wildfire is gone, the WDS team will attempt to return to the homes to place items back that were moved, remove sprinklers and confirm that there is no continuing threat.
“We’ll be moving like this all season across British Columbia and Alberta, “ Mr. Torgerson said. “We’ll be moving from fire to fire.”
In B.C., the coverage is available to those who live south of the 56th parallel line – a line of latitude that runs across the northern part of the province and is used as a reference by Intact. (The pilot is excluded for residents of B.C. islands).
In Alberta, it is available to all residents who live south of the 57th parallel line, which begins at Fort McMurray. This includes policyholders of Intact’s subsidiary brands belairdirect and Intact Prestige.
Mr. Torgerson said that while the weather change has given a bit of a reprieve, it has not put an end to the process.
“We have to keep assessing, triaging and working with properties until we end up working through hundreds of properties, and if the fire is gonna give us extra time, we’re gonna keep working for a while. "