Brief by Central Staff
Wildfire – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
If you don’t clear the brush and trees around your mountain home, you could lose your fire insurance — if you’re currently insured with State Farm, anyway.
In May, the insurance company announced that it planned to conduct inspections on about 21,000 Colorado houses that it insures in areas that are prone to wildfire.
Homeowners who do not have enough cleared “defensible space” around their houses will get 18 to 24 months to remove the flammable material. If they don’t, their insurance will not be renewed. The lead time — up to two years — will give homeowners time to apply for federal assistance available under a national fire plan created after the Los Alamos fire three years ago.
So far, State Farm is the only insurance company to adopt this procedure, according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, a regional trade group.