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A burning issue: Australia is in flames, and the insurance industry girds its loins While the physical clear-up will take years, insurers and assessors have sprung into action to work with those who have lost literally everything. HAL WILLIAMS reports. “HOW DO we sleep when our beds are burning?” Those lyrics from Australian band Midnight Oil (whose frontman, Peter Garrett, later became the country’s Environment Minister) are particularly haunting in the reflected light of the bushfire disaster Downunder. Beds, the homes around them, as well as forests, farmlands, vehicles, barns and businesses have been burning in Australia since
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September 5, 2019. And — at the time of writing — the blazes rage on, fuelled by high temperatures and gusts of hot summer wind. Four states — New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria — are still battling fires, many still out of control. To date, 29 human lives have been lost, along with an unknown number of wild and domestic animals, and some 2,500 homes and buildings destroyed. Flora and fauna have
been decimated, the country’s delicate ecosystems ravaged. Aside from the individual, shared and national sense of loss, there are financial losses to account for. And that’s where the insurance industry takes centre stage. Lisa Kable, of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), said 8,985 claims had been made (by early January) with more flooding in each day. Kable estimates the loss value at around $700m — a
A country, its people, and its wildlife decimated by raging bushfires
