When it comes to residential fire performance, Liron Brish, founder of Mangrove, has a suggestion for the HVAC industry.

“It would be prudent for the industry to be ahead of the game when it comes to fire resilience,” Brish said, noting that the available safety discounts for homeowners insurance are just the tip of the iceberg of incentives and regulations. “Both insurers and governments have identified fire resiliency as a focus, and it'll be better for the industry to preemptively show its value.”

His company helps homeowners protect their homes from natural disasters, reduce their home’s climate footprint and save money on utilities. In one of his markets, California, homeowners are having difficulty finding insurance coverage.

State Farm and other major insurers have even announced they aren’t selling anymore California homeowner policies, owing in part to the increased devastation of these fires, as well as a state insurance regulatory environment that keeps insurance rates artificially low, causing the number of providers to shrink.

“That’s what sets California apart from all the other states with a wildfire problem. We don’t have an availability of insurance companies,” said Chris Hebard, the president of Hebard Insurance Solutions, an agency that secures policies for California residents.

This shortage means that homeowners are increasingly having to turn to out of state insurance options, which Hebard said aren’t regulated by the California Department of Insurance and require supplemental coverage. The regulation the department passed in 2022 requiring insurance discounts for property owners who reduce their wildfire risk doesn't apply to them.

“As the cost of wildfires increases, insurers will likely require more stringent home resiliency standards to be eligible for coverage. I would expect them to take a whole-house approach,” Brish said, noting while California has the discount policy, other wildfire states could soon follow suite.

“As governments will be footing the bill for increased wildfires, they, too, may require more resilient ducts,” Brish concluded. “New housing construction already requires duct leakage testing in many jurisdictions. With duct inspection infrastructure already in place, it is not a large jump to have them confirm the material of ducts used.”