Insured Losses in Bastrop County Fire to Reach $250M

Insured damages from what has become the costliest wildfire in Texas history will climb to $250 million, an insurer trade group says.

The Bastrop County Complex fire is now 98 percent contained, according to the Texas Fire Service (TFS). It has charred 34,068 acres in the area about 25 miles east of Austin. The TFS has confirmed that 1,554 homes were destroyed in the large Bastrop fire and the Union Chapel Fire, also in Bastrop County.

The Insurance Council of Texas says insurers report that about 1,500 claims have come in so far. Approximately 10 percent of the homeowners affected by the fire are uninsured, the ICT says.

Texas remains very susceptible to wildfires because of increasing winds across the state. Since November 2010, almost four million acres have burned and 2,700 homes destroyed, the ICT reports.

The TFS notes that media aircraft flying over large swaths of burned acreage in drought-stricken Texas in some cases are creating potentially dangerous situations when flying in the same airspace at the same time as firefighting aircraft.

It is requesting that media helicopters to obtain clearance before flying over wildfire areas.

Topics Texas Profit Loss Wildfire