Insurance companies increasingly sending their own teams to protect homes threatened by wildfire

Wildfire Defense Systems contracts with more than 30 insurance agencies in the U.S. to send teams out to protect policy-covered homes in imminent danger of approaching wildfires. Courtesy of Wildfire Defense Systems

When several pickups arrived carrying yellow-shirted men who quickly began setting up sprinklers around Peter Jesberg’s property near Yampa, he realized just how fast the Crosho fire was encroaching on his home.

The men were not firefighters in the traditional sense — they were contractors hired by Jesberg’s property insurance carrier to protect their liability.

Jesberg, a local business owner, also appreciated the practicality of the strategy.

“It’s cheaper than paying a claim,” he said after the threat of the fire had passed without a single structure lost in the early