The Durango Fire Protection District was repeatedly denied insurance coverage for the construction of its new downtown firehouse earlier this year because of the wildfire risk.
“We literally are a fire station building a fire station next to a next fire station between a river and a highway,” Durango Fire Chief Randy Black said. “It’s 10 feet from the existing one and they turned us down because of the wildlfire risk. It’s just ludicrous.”
After months of searching for a policy, Durango Fire found an insurance company in May that would write an affordable policy to cover the construction of its new building. But the fire department’s predicament is indicative of the struggles many Coloradans face as they try to buy property insurance for their homes and businesses.
An estimated 321,294 homes across Colorado valued at $141 billion are at risk of being destroyed by wildfires, according to CoreLogic’s 2024 Wildfire Risk Assessment.