OREANDA-NEWS. May 27, 2016. Verisk Insurance Solutions, a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk, announced that its FireLine(TM) wildfire risk management service is expanding to include the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. FireLine, which is well established in the western United States, enables property-specific assessment of wildfire risk that insurers use for underwriting, rating, and exposure management purposes. Verisk Insurance Solutions is a Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business.

"The Fort McMurray fire and other recent fires, including the 2011 Slave Lake fire in Alberta and the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire in British Columbia, are stark reminders that Western Canada is at an elevated risk for wildfires with the potential to cause large insurance losses," said Roch Lacroix, director, Canadian Operations for Verisk Insurance Solutions. "In the United States, FireLine has long been used by insurers to understand the potential level of wildfire risk for each property to help them underwrite and price the risk. Now, Canadian insurers have access to the same insights with the ability to integrate FireLine with their own data for a customized risk management approach."

FireLine uses advanced satellite data to assess the impact of three primary contributors to wildfire risk: fuel, slope, and road access. Fuel represents the vegetation surrounding the property; slope is the grade of land upon which the property is built; and road access identifies potential barriers for firefighters. For every address it covers, FireLine gives a score for each primary risk factor and an overall wildfire hazard score.

"Our analysis of the recent Fort McMurray fire is an example of how Canadian insurers can benefit from FireLine," said Dr. Arindam Samanta, director, Product Management and Innovation, for Verisk Insurance Solutions. "It showed that 88 percent of the land burned by the fire was at high or extreme risk from wildfire. This information is critical for effective wildfire risk management."  

For more information, read the complete FireLine analysis of the Fort McMurray fire.

About Verisk Insurance Solutions

A Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business, Verisk Insurance Solutions is a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk. Drawing upon unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide innovative solutions that are integrated into customer workflows, Verisk Insurance Solutions includes the industry-leading brands of ISO, AIR Worldwide, and Xactware. Around the world, Verisk Insurance Solutions helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets. For more information, visit www.verisk.com/insurance.