Financial readiness is important before wildfire season hits
National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day is Saturday, May 7, and the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) has tips to help you be prepared.
Financial readiness is often forgotten when preparing for a disaster, particularly a wildfire. Here are some tips to be ready:
• Conduct annual review with your insurance agent or company to make sure you have the right amounts and types of insurance coverage.
• Renters should purchase renters insurance to protect their personal belongings. It is affordable; many policies cost around $15 a month.
• Create a home inventory. Take photos or videos of your possessions in each room of your home. Store the inventory in the cloud or in a location away from your home.
• Gather and make copies of important identifying and financial documents, including identification and Social Security cards, titles, insurance policy information, tax records, and pet records.
• Build an emergency kit.
Preparing the outside of your home and creating defensible space is important before wildfire season hits. Ways to potentially save your home from a total loss include cleaning out gutters, raking and removing pine needles and dry leaves to a minimum of three to five feet from your home’s foundation, sweeping porches and decks, pruning low-hanging tree branches to a height of four feet from the ground, and adding screens to your home’s vents to keep embers from entering.
The division’s wildfire insurance: https://dfr.oregon.gov/insure/home/storm/Pages/wildfires.aspx and disaster preparedness: https://dfr.oregon.gov/preparenow/Pages/index.aspx pages have more resources to help people prepare for and recover from disasters. We have resources available in multiple languages. Visit dfr.oregon.gov/help for more information.
DFR consumer advocates can answer insurance questions and manage complaints and DFR’s outreach team can provide presentations to communities on how to be disaster ready. Contact DFR at outreach.dfr@dcbs.oregon.gov
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The Division of Financial Regulation is part of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, Oregon’s largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. Visit dfr.oregon.gov and oregon.gov/dcbs
Jason Horton, public information officer
503-798-6376
jason.a.horton@dcbs.oregon.gov
