BCAA Home Insurance Wildfire Property Defence Program

BCAA Home Insurance now includes a wildfire property defence program that allows us to deploy services that aim to reduce the damage caused to your home in the event of a wildfire.

If your home is threatened by a wildfire, a team of wildfire loss mitigation professionals may deploy to your area and work with local authorities to gain access to the evacuation zone. The team may then perform services to the exterior of your property that aim to reduce the damage a wildfire may cause. Although damage and loss could still occur, services that may be performed to improve your home’s chance of survival include:

• Moving combustible materials like wood and furniture away from the property.
• Preventing embers from entering your home by taping exterior vents and doors.
• Setting up sprinklers to wet the area.
• Pruning trees and shrubs and removing flammable brush and vegetation.
• Other non-permanent wildfire loss-mitigating activities.

The ability to provide these services is not guaranteed and is dependent on safety, weather conditions, proximity of the fire and whether your property is located in the eligible service area.

BCAA Home Insurance and our contractors will take care to act professionally and carefully to avoid damaging the property, but in the unlikely event damage does occur, you may open a claim with BCAA Home Insurance. No deductible will be applied and any claims free status and rewards applied to your policy will be unaffected.

Homeowners who own their building are eligible for BCAA Home Insurance’s wildfire property defence program, including single-family homes, seasonal homes, rented dwellings and mobile homes, if they fall into the program’s geographical service area. The geographical service area excludes properties in the far north areas beyond Fort St John (north of the 57th parallel line) and Vancouver Island or coastal areas only accessible by ferry such as Haida Gwaii, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast.

Condo and Renters Insurance policyholders are not eligible for the program.

Homeowners who own their building but fall outside of the geographical service area are not eligible for the program, as eligibility is currently limited to geographical locations where the wildfire property defence program will be most effective. Condo and Renters Insurance policyholders are not eligible for the program, as it is only offered to customers who own the building.

No. BCAA is able to provide this program at no additional cost for eligible BCAA Home Insurance customers, as we feel strongly the program has the potential to reduce the scale of damage and losses caused by wildfire.

As an eligible BCAA Home Insurance customer within the service area, you are enrolled to receive this program and the team of wildfire loss mitigation professionals may access the external area of your property, if they deploy to your area during a wildfire. The team of wildfire loss mitigation professionals will never enter the internal area of your home.

Given the speed with which wildfire events can escalate, you will not be notified prior to the team of wildfire loss mitigation professionals attending to your property. Your policy wording reflects this change and will also be updated at your next renewal.

The team of wildfire loss mitigation professionals will take care to act professionally and carefully to avoid damaging the property, but in the unlikely event damage does occur, you may open a claim with BCAA Home Insurance. No deductible will be applied and any claims free status and rewards applied to your policy will be unaffected.

The team may also leave a door hanger at your property to notify you that they have performed on-site damage reduction services.

We have partnered with Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS) to offer the wildfire property defence program. WDS is the largest, leading provider of wildfire property defence services in North America for insurance companies. Their field personnel are trained to the highest industry standards, and they have invested heavily in establishing relationships with emergency authorities to provide an effective service.