Homes Don’t Have to Burn

Gel Provides Shield From Wildfires

By Janet E.H. Wright, ABC, APR

Urban interface is a new buzz phrase for the encroachment of housing development into heavily wooded areas, which may include major forests. With this trend comes a peril that many woodland homeowners must consider: wildfires.

The urban interface is not limited to the West. Properties in the Midwest and East also risk exposure. As global warming increases, so do wildfires and their territory. With the increase of urban interface, more houses are being built in wooded areas, adding to the potential fuel for drier, hotter weather. Very few homeowners in these areas realize that long grasses are just as flammable as trees.

“People moving out of settled communities into wilderness areas often do not know how to build and landscape homes to protect against fire,” said Brett Gregr, an independent consultant based in Montana, a state very familiar with wildfires. Formerly senior vice president of HIH Insurance Services in Newport Beach, California, he has a 10-year insurance background with a specialty in risk management.

But Gregr is also a firefighter with personal wildfire experience. When the Blodget Canyon fire in 2000 threatened his Montana home, he began helping to fight fires and teaching loss control.

“The houses burned weren’t prepared properly for the threat of wildfires,” he explained. “Those who were prepared had cleared a 30- to 100-foot fire-safe area around the home and used metal roofs in construction. They came through the firestorm unscathed while the area around them was decimated. It literally looked like a nuclear firestorm.”

But homes don’t have to burn.

“Homeowners are the key to the wildfire problem,” Gregr said. “They need to plan for the possibility. Wildfires are part of the Rockies’ ecosystem, for instance, and global warming is making them more frequent – and killing more firefighters. Personal home protection and planning is the key. Firefighters are not responsible for structure protection and will drive by a home without 100 feet of cleared ground around it because without that fire break, attempting to save an unprotected structure from a wildfire is futile, and life-threatening.”

Gregr feels that insurance companies and consumers can be educated about reasonable solutions to the problem so that fewer homes are lost. People will continue to build homes in forests, but those homes don’t have to be places where homeowners or firefighters die.

Because of his concern, not only for loss of property, but also loss of life, Gregr has discovered a new product that is effective in the mitigation of wildfires. The product is Thermo Gel, a polymer-based substance which absorbs water. It is sprayed onto a combustible surface, which literally becomes covered with water if exposed to extreme heat. In effect, a house would be protected as if it were under water in the event of a wildfire. The gel keeps the treated surface from becoming hot enough to burst into flame. It can be used on any surface, including siding and windows.

“The gel can actually be dropped from air tankers, helping to save whole communities,” said Gregr.

The product is offered as part of a $330 loss mitigation kit, although Gregr offers a wildfire home assessment service for $400, which includes the gel kit. The assessment is conducted by qualified professionals who study existing risks and create a total mitigation plan, including landscaping, foliage checks, establishment of escape routes, and planning access to the property by family members and firefighters.

Gregr brought his message of wildfire mitigation to the Montana Association of Mutual Insurance Companies in a dramatic presentation at its annual convention. He demonstrated Thermo Gel by applying it to his own hand, then setting fire to it, with no harm done.

“Insurers must take the lead as firefighters die and more homes are exposed to this danger,” Gregr said. “Firefighters do not want to lose homes and will try to save them in spite of danger. Insurers will see liability claims for negligence if homeowners do not mitigate fuels in preparation for fires. Policyholders should be educated on the importance of getting homes inspected and protected.

“People don’t become concerned until it happens to them,” he says. “We’ve lost 860 structures to wildfires in 2007. Homeowners and insurers need to be proactive in an age of increasing danger from this kind of threat. There is nothing you can do when the fire’s on the horizon.”

Author’s Note: During the Black Cat Wildland Fire in Montana, hundreds of homes were threatened, yet in the middle of it all, homes prepared in a fire-wise manner assisted firefighters in protecting property while helping to keep crews safe.

For more information on Thermo Gel and wildfire mitigation, contact Brett Gregr at bgregr@earthlink.net or call (406) 360-0290.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 4:15:55 PM.

(317) 875-5250 - Indianapolis | (202) 628-1558 - Washington, D.C.

Contact NAMIC | Press | Advertise | Sponsor

We are 1,400 property/casualty insurance companies serving more than 135 million auto, home and business policyholders, with more than $196 billion in premiums accounting for 50 percent of the automobile/homeowners market and 31 percent of the business insurance market. We are the largest and most diverse property/casualty trade association in the country, with regional and local mutual insurance companies on main streets across America joining many of the country’s largest national insurers who also call NAMIC their home. More than 200,000 people are employed by NAMIC members.