One of the biggest concerns of those who have suffered fire damaged property are worried about house fire impacts insurance rate.

Unfortunately, suffering a house fire will significantly impact your rate.

According to new research, the average cost of home insurance rises by nearly 30% following a house fire. According to individual state numbers, the average rate of increase could be as high as 42% or as low as 6%, depending on the state in which you live. This can add a significant financial burden to homeowners who are already dealing with the aftermath of a fire. In such circumstances, some homeowners may opt to sell a fire-damaged house rather than bear the cost of increased insurance premiums and extensive repairs.

The bottom line is that fire damage raises homeowner’s insurance costs in every state, with four states seeing average increases of 40% or more.

Annual home insurance costs rise by an average of 27% across the 50 states and the District of Columbia post-fire damage. Florida boasts the lowest rate hike at 6%, while West Virginia and Mississippi face the steepest increase of 42%. Notable increases are seen in Idaho (41%) and Oregon (40%), known for wildfires.

Does getting supplementary insurance help?

Whether they are residential or wildfires, home insurance policies normally cover damage brought on by fire. Even if a fire is started by an occurrence not generally covered by a homeowners insurance policy, such as an earthquake, fire damage is usually covered.

In addition to their standard home or renters insurance coverage, some homeowners or tenants may wish to — or perhaps need to — obtain a supplementary fire insurance policy.

A stand-alone fire policy can be purchased by owners of properties with a history of claims or properties that aren’t their principal residence to cover damage.

Additionally, traditional insurance companies may decline to provide coverage to homeowners whose homes were constructed in high-risk regions with frequent wildfires. Instead, to obtain insurance protection for these homeowners, they must acquire Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plans.

Why house fire insurance is needed in the first place

Quite simply, there are an astonishing number of house fires that take place in the US every year. These fires cause billions of dollars in property damage, thousands of fatalities, and numerous other injuries.

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Fire Administration, residential fires between 2003 and 2019 resulted in an average $8.1 billion in annual damage. Residential fires damaged residences by $138 billion in total during this time.

Insurance protects you from having to pay expensive repair bills on your own. This is important because house fires occur frequently and this may be your best option if selling a fire-damaged house is not on the table.

In fact, no year between 2003 and 2019 had less than 350,000 home fires. There were 6.4 million residential fires annually, or 375,059 on average.

Read Also: What Does Homeowners Insurance Cover After A House Fire?

What are the main causes of house fires?

Heating equipment has been a significant factor in residential fires since 2003, being the second-leading cause, responsible for about 46% of yearly incidents. Cooking-related heat sources, including stoves, ovens, and cooking fires, are the main culprits in the majority of house fires, based on data from 2003 to 2019.

What can you do to prevent a house fire?

There are things you can do to be fire prepared even though it is impossible to entirely fireproof your home. In fact, doing some of these things could even possibly result in a reduction in the cost of your homeowner’s insurance.

So what can you do?

Start in the kitchen

The kitchen is the room in the house where fires start more often than any other. In total, 49 percent of all fires between 2015 and 2019 had their origins in kitchens. Many of these fires were started by persons who neglected to watch food being cooked, had combustibles too close to a heat source, or forgot to switch off cooking appliances like stoves and ovens when they were finished.

To prevent kitchen fires, follow these simple steps:

When cooking, stay in the kitchen. If for any reason you must leave the house, turn off the stove, oven, or other device until you can come back.

Keep coming back for cuisine that takes a while to cook. This will lessen the risk of fires, for instance, if the liquid has evaporated and the food is cooking dry.

Establish timers to monitor cooking progress and serve as a reminder of when meals should be ready.

Oven mitts, paper towels, cloth towels, food packaging, and wooden utensils are examples of items to keep away from the cooking source.

Keep small children away from the source of the cooking. This could also stop kids from placing combustible objects next to the cooking source, further preventing burns.

Take extra care when handling oils and grease. It is impossible to put out these fires with water. Use a fire extinguisher with a kitchen rating, or douse the flames.

Next, move to the bedrooms

Bedrooms are the second most frequent location for house fires. These fires could be electrical in nature, brought on by defective wiring, broken or worn-out electric blankets, or the usage of space heaters while people are sleeping. They could also be caused by people smoking and falling asleep.

The following are some bedroom fire safety tips:

Avoid smoking in bed. The embers from your cigarette could ignite a fire if you fall asleep and they land on the carpet, bed sheets, or blankets.

Before retiring to bed, extinguish the candles.

Put laptops, smartphones, and other charging devices on a solid surface like a desk, dresser, or nightstand. Avoid leaving them on the carpet or bed where they could catch fire if they become too hot.

When you’re ready to go to sleep, turn off your space heater after preheating the room. By doing this, overheating that might start a fire will be avoided.

When using electric blankets, use the same procedure: heat the bed and switch the blanket off when you’re ready to sleep.

Verify the wiring is up to code throughout the house, including in the bedrooms.

Suffered a house fire?

To avoid a stressful repair process, sell your house to We Buy Fire Damaged Houses. We pay all cash and buy burned homes in as-is condition.

Complete the short form below to learn more.

Photo by Joanne Francis on Unsplash