This summer, as wildfires raged and families hurried away from their homes, a small group of firefighters raced toward neighborhoods. Insurance companies sent them.
“It’s really about: where is that fire imminent? And, which homes can we save,” said Angi Orbann a Vice President at Travelers Insurance.
Without fanfare, the company quietly added private firefighting services to all of its homeowner and landlord policies about a year ago. “We made the decision to apply this to all of our customers equally,” Orbann said. Travelers connected NBC Bay Area with the vendor it hired. “We track fires … at our operations center,” said CEO David Torgerson.
WDS says its staff cross references imminent threats with homes that Travelers insures. Then, when an evacuation order kicks homeowners out, private crews move in. They tape up vents, apply fire retardants, and clear debris.