AIR Currents
Did you know that the Fort McMurray wildfire could be Canada's costliest natural disaster of all time?
June 21, 2016
An initial estimate by PCS® of roughly USD 3.5 billion in insured losses would make the Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada, the costliest on record in North America—and the costliest natural catastrophe in all of Canada.
It would top a short list of wildfires in the region caused more than 1 billion dollars in insured losses, all the rest of which occurred in California. The October 1991 Oakland Fire caused USD 1.7 billion (USD 2.6 billion in 2014 dollars); the October 2007 Witch Fire caused USD 1.3 billion (USD 1.4 billion in 2014 dollars); the October 2003 Cedar Fire caused USD 1.06 billion (USD 1.3 billion in 2014 dollars); and more recently the twin Valley and Butte fires that raged for two weeks in September 2015 have been estimated by AIR’s sister company FireLine™ to have caused USD 1.1 billion.
