9 Emergency services for fire and other events

‘Value of asset losses from fire and other events’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to reduce the adverse effects of events on the community (including people, property, infrastructure, the economy and the environment).

‘Value of asset losses from fire and other events’ is defined by two measures:

• fire events – the estimated monetary value of the damage to domestic (household) property and contents caused by fire and firefighting operations based on insurance claims, reported separately for bushfire and non-bushfire events
• other major weather events – the estimated monetary value of the damage to domestic (household) property and contents caused by other major weather events (e.g., flood, storm) based on insurance claims.

These measures comprise the value of all insurance claims, including those for major events (defined as total claims greater than $100 million). As a result, there is potential for volatility across the time series due to the unpredictability of major events.

The value of household insurance claims from fire events and other major weather events reflects efforts to reduce the likelihood, effect and consequences of emergencies on communities. Lower or decreasing asset losses from fire and other major weather events is desirable.

Data should be interpreted with caution as insurance claims may not reflect actual asset losses due to:

• under insurance – insurance payouts are limited by the estimated value of assets a policy holder provides when taking out insurance (and not all assets lost in fire and other major weather events are insured)
• new for old policies – new for old policies replace an old asset with a new equivalent
• excess policies – small losses from fire and other weather events are not recorded where no insurance claim is made. Policy holders might not make an insurance claim for small losses given the requirement for policy holders to pay an excess.

Data reflects approximately 70% and 80% of the potential domestic and commercial insurance markets, respectively.

The average value of the 6,596 total fire event insurance claims (including bushfire event claims) for households was $117,288 in 2022-23. The total value of household asset losses from all fire events was $773.6 million in 2022-23 (table 9A.19). Supporting data on commercial fire event claims (reported separately for bushfire and non-bushfire events) is available in table 9A.19.

The average value of the 33,266 other major weather event insurance claims was $64,293 in 2022-23. The total value of household asset losses for other major weather events was $2.1 billion (table 9A.20). Supporting data on commercial major weather event claims is available in table 9A.20.

Some negative values are reported in average and total value of claims (tables 9A.19–20). Negative values are the result of delays finalising insurance claims for large events, insurers revising their reserves, and third-party recoveries.

The bushfire events captured across the reported time series are:

• the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires – November/December 2019
• Pinery Bushfires – November 2015
• New South Wales Bushfires – October 2013.