Brokers placing property risk in the Pacific Northwest and other markets not traditionally considered top-tier wildfire zones should take note of what just happened in Spokane, Washington.
The Spokane Complex fires have destroyed more than 700 structures, making it the city's most destructive wildfire on record, and the event marks the third time since 2020 that a wildland fire has become an urban firestorm, following similar events in Colorado in 2021 and California in 2025.
Unlike traditional wildland fires, urban firestorms occur when dense residential development, rather than forest, becomes the primary fuel source.
That shift matters for underwriting because it means wildfire exposure is no longer confined to the high-profile, historically wildfire-prone markets carriers have long modeled for, such as California and Colorado.
Spokane, a mid-sized metro area, had not previously been treated as a top-tier wildfire risk zone, yet the city just recorded its worst fire on record, surpassing its previous benchmark, the 1991 fire that destroyed 114 structures, and the 2023 Gray Fire, which destroyed around 240 structures.
Roughly 65,000 people have been evacuated, and the three fires making up the complex had burned nearly 10,000 acres with zero containment as of August 4, 2026, according to incident commander Tom Clemo. An arson arrest has been made in connection with one of the three blazes, the Old Trails Fire, which alone destroyed roughly 640 structures.
These figures reflect an active, fast-moving disaster and should be checked against the latest available data before publication.
Following the January 2025 Southern California fires, which produced $40 billion in insured losses and became the costliest single wildfire event on record, according to Markel, carriers pulled back from or sharply raised rates in wildfire-exposed markets.
Wildfire's share of total US insured catastrophe losses has climbed from approximately 1% before 2015 to roughly 7% today, according to Swiss Re data cited by Amwins. More than 35,000 fires burned over three million acres across the US in the first half of 2026 alone, well above 10-year averages, according to a Triple-I brief published August 2.
Brokers placing property risk in Washington, Idaho, and similar Pacific Northwest markets should expect carriers to begin applying the same scrutiny to urban-adjacent wildland areas that has previously been reserved for California and Colorado.
That could mean tighter underwriting, new wildfire-specific deductibles, or coverage restrictions emerging in areas that have not faced them before.
Media reports noted a recurring problem after major wildfire events: displaced homeowners' insurance payouts often do not match the cost of rebuilding, a pattern also seen after the 2025 California fires and the 2021 Colorado fires. Brokers with clients in affected areas have an immediate opportunity to get ahead of that issue by proactively reviewing dwelling coverage limits, additional living expenses (ALE) sublimits, and whether coverage reflects current construction costs, rather than waiting for underinsurance to surface mid-claim.
Auto coverage is a related blind spot worth flagging directly to clients. Comprehensive coverage, the optional portion of a standard auto policy that covers fire, falling objects, and other hazards, is carried by only about 75% of US drivers, according to Triple-I.
That means a meaningful share of vehicle owners affected by the Spokane fires will have no coverage for fire damage to their vehicles at all.
For brokers without direct exposure in Washington, Spokane is still a useful and current case study. It reinforces that wildfire risk assessment can no longer be limited to a short list of well-known high-risk states, and it offers a concrete example for client conversations about coverage adequacy in any wildland-urban interface market.
As carriers continue recalibrating wildfire risk nationally, brokers who proactively review coverage limits and communicate the shifting risk picture to clients in adjacent or comparable markets are better positioned than those waiting for the next headline event to prompt the conversation.
