Mammoth Lakes Insurance Beneficial Risk Factors Versus Fireline Score

Property insurance continues to be a tricky situation in the Eastern Sierra. What this means is you might be paying more for your premium, or you might need to advocate to get the coverage you need. At Insurance Scouts, we always advocate for our partners to find the best coverage for you so you don’t have to worry about it.

Here’s an example of a recent situation. I sent the below email to a potential home insurance underwriter to give them some perspective on Mammoth Lakes. Sometimes Mammoth homes don’t look insurable on paper, but there’s more to the story. We ended up insuring this $5 million home with the company I sent this to. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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Good morning,

I wanted to introduce myself, our agency attended the training webinar and we were thoroughly impressed by the level of information you consider to appropriately rate a risk. If there is anything you need on this, I don’t mind going back and taking more photos or jumping on Google Earth for a video conference and screen sharing.

I believe Mammoth Lakes in general offers better risk characteristics than fireline or other mapping softwares give us credit for. Below are some highlights.

• The Mammoth Lakes Fire Department is a very progressive department with a 2019 Community Wildfire Protection Plan. This link and interactive map show prior fuel reduction projects. The overlay will even show the location of our 750 hydrants.

• Fire Triangle: 1) Oxygen- We have approximetly 25% less oxygen density when compared to sea level. (This risk is at 8,325 feet.) 2) Heat- Even in July and August our average daily temperatures are less than 80 degrees F and a cool 52 degrees F at night. 3) Fuels- Because we are Alpine our fuels are less dense, we have natural granite barriers, and our many fuel reduction projects over the last 10 years have improved our fuel loads.

• In Mammoth Lakes we have fire fighting resources: Mammoth Lakes Fire Department. Inyo National Forest Fire Fighting Station & Resources are adjacent to MLFD. CalFire with large convict crews are 45 minutes from Mammoth Lakes. Mutual aid departments are within 15-60 minutes of Mammoth Lakes. 

• The Creek Fire last year was horrible and we got more than our share of smoke. As the fire burned closer to Mammoth Lakes it burnt out naturally because of granite rock barriers and lighter fuels. The granite rock barriers that naturally occur in our area like Mammoth Mountain make great fire lines. The fire print or black from the Creek Fire benefits Mammoth Lakes with reduced fuels going forward.

• The Mammoth Lakes Basin is currently undergoing a major fuels reduction project.

I have been involved with local fire departments for over 13 years and this experience has improved my understanding of fire specifically. Let me know if anything else would be helpful.

We look forward to growing with you,

Brian