Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS) and insurance companies

Just read “California’s megafires spur insurers to send in special, private crews before a blaze hits” in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning. Gregory Thomas explains how the WDS service works and when the insurance companies send WDS in to save houses and businesses.

Good to know, though somehow I doubt an insurance-company crew could get into our area in time, considering the substandard access and the unlikelihood of “several days” notice. But this caught my eye:

The primary concern of Wildfire Defense Systems: embers. As many as 90% of structure ignitions in the U.S. are caused by embers traveling into vents, sparking dry ground fuels or becoming lodged in a structure’s roofs or gutters, according to recent research published by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.