Canada wildfire tab nears $3 billion

The May wildfires around Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, caused an estimated CA$3.58 billion ($2.77 billion) in insured damage, the Insurance Bureau of Canada announced Thursday.

That makes the wildfires the costliest event in terms of insured damage in Canadian history, said the Toronto-based IBC. The fires caused more than twice as much insured damage as the next costliest event, the 2013 floods in southern Alberta, which resulted in about CA$1.7 billion ($1.32 billion) in insured damage, according to IBC.

The figures were tallied by Toronto-based Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. — CatIQ — which delivers detailed analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and manmade catastrophes.

During a telephone news conference Thursday, CatIQ Managing Director Carolyn Rennie broke down the losses by line of coverage. She said the fires resulted in 27,000 personal property claims averaging CA$81,000 ($62,726) per claim, more than 12,000 auto insurance claims, averaging CA$15,000 ($11,616) per claim, and more than 5,000 commercial insurance claims that average over CA$250,000 ($193,600) per claim.