As Western wildfires force evacuations in Arizona and California – on the heels of an early and severe wildfire season in New Mexico – insurers are increasingly eyeing the growing risks.

“Insurers are very much concerned about the wildfire situation,” said Arindam Samanta, director of product management for Verisk Underwriting Solutions. “We are talking to dozens of insurers.”

The increased interest has led to increased sales of Verisk’s wildfire modeling and data, Samanta said.

“We see the use of granular information has gone up in the industry,” he said. “Uptake of this information has gone up.”

Insurer concerns are real, and they are playing themselves out in what’s shaping up to be another long, and so far severe, Western U.S. wildfire season.

Two wildfires burning on the outskirts of Flagstaff, Arizona, have forced the evacuation of roughly 2,500 homes. One of the blazes is estimated to have reached 8 square miles in size.

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