File photo (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Aaron Schulze

Wildfire Watch

Kamloops named city with the highest risk during the 2024 wildfire season: insurance survey

Jun 4, 2024 | 6:33 AM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops received a grim title ahead of the summer.

According to a survey from MyChoice, an online company that markets home, auto and life insurance, Kamloops is at the highest risk for this year’s wildfire season, with a risk score of 9.4 out of 10. The top five was rounded out by Saskatoon in second with a risk of score of 8.8 and Kelowna, Medicine Hat and Regina tied in third with 8.6.

MyChoice scored cities by combining the equally weighted average of the Forecast Severity Rating (FSR) and the Forecast Severity Anomaly (FSA) from May to September 2023.

MyChoice shows Kamloops having a FSR of four in May, five in June, three in July and five in August and September. Three is listed as high, four very high and five extreme. Kamloops was given a FSA score of five – well above average – from May to September.

“In Canada, the insurance market has shown resilience, and we have not yet reached the point where insurers are withdrawing coverage. However, the unprecedented scale of wildfires last year is a clear warning signal,” Aren Mirzaian, MyChoice CEO states. “We need to be proactive in understanding the risks and ensuring that Canadian home insurance offerings are robust enough to provide adequate coverage in these challenging times.”

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The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in B.C.’s recorded history with more than 2.84 million hectares of land burned by 2,245 individual wildfires.