Nov 4, 2019 | 3 min Read
The 2019 Wildfire season is in full swing in California. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated, close to a million residents were impacted by precautionary power shut-offs, and all the while, firefighters around the state have been tirelessly at work. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected.
As of November 2nd, California has experienced 67 federally tracked wildfires and 247,683 acres have burned in 2019 (thousands of other smaller fires have also affected the state this year though they burned only a very small amount of acreage). As more information becomes available including finalized wildfire perimeters and buildings affected (including structure survival), we will provide additional updates.
ZestyAI is a property risk analytics company that leverages Artificial Intelligence to better understand natural disasters, such as wildfires. ZestyAI developed Z-FIRE, a property-specific wildfire risk model powered by Artificial Intelligence and millions of data points including high resolution aerial and satellite imagery. Z-FIRE is a two-level score. Level 1 represents the risk of a location being affected by a wildfire, and Level 2, the risk of a building being damaged by a wildfire if that location falls within a future wildfire perimeter.
For the 67 federally tracked 2019 fires in California, 98% of the area burned was considered Very High or High risk on the Z-FIRE Level 1 model.
Although most of the areas affected by wildfire were considered Very High risk on Z-FIRE™ Level 1, most buildings in California do not fall into this category. In fact, only 5% of structures in California are considered Very High risk on Z-FIRE™ Level 1 (with an additional 5% in the High risk category).
Information About Some of the Recent Fires
Kincade Fire
The Kincade fire began on October 23rd, and as of November 2nd was still active. It quickly became the largest fire of the season - burning 79,844 acres and forcing the largest evacuation in Sonoma county’s history. On Z-FIRE™ Level 1, 94% of the area burned was considered a Very High risk of wildfire. In addition, 88% of the 2,064 structures within the fire perimeter were located in Very High or High risk areas.
Tick Fire
Shortly after the Kincade fire began, the Tick Fire started on October 24th in Los Angeles County. It quickly spread to 4,615 acres. As of November 2nd, it was fully contained. On Z-FIRE™ Level 1, 97% of the area burned was considered a Very High risk of wildfire. In addition, 87% of the 718 structures within the fire perimeter were located in Very High or High risk areas.
Saddle Ridge Fire
On October 10th, the Saddle Ridge Fire started in Los Angeles County, spreading to 8,799 acres. As of November 2nd, it was 97% contained. On Z-FIRE™ Level 1, 90% of the area burned was considered a Very High risk of wildfire. In addition, 77% of the 124 structures within the fire perimeter were located in Very High or High risk areas
Destruction within Fire Perimeters
Once the smoke settles on the current fires, Zesty.ai will be capturing satellite and aerial imagery of impacted areas. Using AI-powered image recognition algorithms, Zesty.ai’s engineers will assess the damage of every single property within all fire perimeters.
Please join us in supporting communities impacted by the most recent CA wildfires by donating to 2019 California Wildfires Recovery Fund established by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and trusted by companies like Facebook and Google.
About Zesty.ai
Zesty.ai is the leading partner for property & casualty insurance companies embarking on digital transformation. The company harnesses the power of artificial intelligence on cutting-edge data sources including aerial imagery to model risk to real property. Zesty.ai leverages predictive algorithms on 130+Bn data points to understand the potential impact of natural catastrophes on individual properties with unprecedented accuracy. Insurance companies rely on these property risk insights to make smart marketing, underwriting and rating decisions. For more information, visit https://zesty.ai.