More than 20,000 people have been displaced by the Bald Range wildfire in what officials have called one of the largest evacuations in BC's history, with evacuation orders and alerts remaining in place across Summerland, Peachland and surrounding communities. The fire, now estimated at 18,450 hectares, continues to grow, with BC Wildfire Service warning that shifting winds and possible thunderstorms could increase fire behaviour over coming days. Re-entry remains days to weeks away by local officials' own estimate.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada has deployed trained insurance professionals to Penticton through its Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion programme. The CAMP unit is set up inside the City of Penticton's Emergency Operations Centre at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre alongside Emergency Support Services.
"Evacuations and wildfire damage can create significant challenges for families, businesses and entire communities," said Aaron Sutherland, IBC's vice-president, Pacific and Western. "The insurance industry is committed to supporting affected residents through the recovery process."
IBC's Consumer Information Centre is also available by phone at 1-877-288-4321 for residents unable to reach the Penticton CAMP location.
CAMP deployments are part of IBC's standard catastrophe response, but the open-ended timeline of this evacuation makes the broker's role in directing clients toward early claims action more important than usual. Communities like Faulder, west of Summerland, have already seen confirmed structural losses documented only through resident video and mobile phone photographs - not through official assessment, which has not yet been possible.
Insurers can typically begin processing a claim based on informal documentation: phone photos, neighbour accounts, and insurer-side satellite or aerial imagery, while formal ground assessments catch up. Brokers advising displaced clients should be making this clear now. Waiting for a return date that officials cannot yet provide is not a claims strategy - it adds weeks to the process without improving the eventual outcome.
Starting a claim does not require a completed loss inventory. It requires a first call to the insurer, most of whom operate 24-hour claims lines, and a basic account of the property and its location. The CAMP team in Penticton can help with that first step for residents who are uncertain how to begin.
Three coverage points generate consistent confusion in wildfire claims and are worth raising proactively with any client in the evacuation zone.
Standard home insurance covers fire damage even if the fire started on a neighbouring property or on Crown land, provided the policyholder did not intentionally cause it. The origin of the Bald Range fire does not affect coverage for residential losses.
Additional living expense coverage is triggered once a civil or provincial authority orders an evacuation - not only after confirmed damage to the property. Clients under evacuation order are likely already incurring eligible expenses such as accommodation costs. Those costs should be documented and claimed, but the specific period of coverage and dollar limits vary by insurer and should be confirmed directly rather than assumed.
Seasonal and secondary properties - cottages, cabins, and rural structures in the fire's broader path - may carry different coverage limits, different deductibles, and different occupancy conditions than a primary residence. Clients with those properties in or near the affected area should confirm their terms with their insurer separately once access is possible, rather than assuming the same coverage applies.
Brokers with clients in the evacuation zone have a concrete, immediate action available: share the IBC CAMP location and phone number, confirm that claims can start before re-entry, and address the three coverage questions above before displaced policyholders discover the answers through a denied expense or a missed entitlement.
