Over the past few years, there hasn’t really been a traditional wildfire season in the U.S. and Canada. The year’s worst fire was in northern Alberta…in May. Meanwhile, last year’s most tragic U.S. fires were burning over Thanksgiving in Tennessee. This year, the tragedy started in February with Texas and Oklahoma experiencing horrible and fatal wildfire in February. There was almost no quiet season (also known as “winter”) for wildfire.

And now, in mid-March, the state making the wildfire news is… Florida. The state synonymous with flood insurance / reform / activism is also the state with the most wildfires per year (who knew?!? It’s the lightning!)

As insurance moves toward significant flood insurance reform, fueled by the availability of dependable analytics and datasets, let’s not forget wildfire. Let’s use the Florida fires as a reminder. It is a peril that is rarely excluded from coverage, causes significant losses every year, and has some of the best available analytics for risk assessment and transfer…they just happen to be underutilized.

So, don’t forget wildfire!