Clark County sees spike in homeowners insurance denials over wildfire risk

We need to rewrite the article as original SinCity Press journalism, preserving all facts, names, dates, numbers, and quotes exactly. Use professional journalism tone, vary sentence structure. Output only the rewritten article, no preface or commentary. Must not include reporter contact info, email, social media, publication credits. So we must remove the contact line at end. Also we must keep all facts, names, dates, numbers, quotes exactly. So we need to rewrite but preserve quotes verbatim. Also preserve numbers like 2nd, 357, 772,861, 2024, 2,770, 650,227, 0.4 percent, 2,015 percent, ZIP codes, numbers of denials, percentages, etc. We need to ensure we don't add any new info or omit any facts. Must keep all details. We need to produce a rewritten article, but we must keep quotes exactly as they appear. So we must copy the quoted statements exactly. Also preserve any formatting like “ ”? Probably we can keep as normal quotes. The original uses HTML entities for quotes. We should preserve the meaning but can replace with regular quotes? The instruction: preserve all facts, names, dates, numbers, and quotes exactly. So we must keep the quotes exactly as they appear, including the HTML entities? The original text includes “ and ”. Those are HTML entities for curly quotes. If we change them to regular quotes, we are not preserving exactly. So we should keep them as “ and ”. Also there are … etc. We must preserve those exactly. We must also preserve any special characters like ‑ (hyphen). So we need to keep those. Thus we need to rewrite the article but keep the quoted strings unchanged. That is tricky: we can rewrite surrounding text but keep quotes exactly. Also we must keep the numbers etc. We need to produce a SinCity Press style article (presumably local news). Use professional tone. We must not add any new info, not omit any facts. So we need to include all paragraphs content but rephrase. Let's extract the factual content: - Nevada homeowners being lumped with California regarding wildfire risk, leading to nonrenewals, cancellations, denials in unexpected parts. - Clark County ranked 2nd in the state for homeowners insurance policy cancellations and nonrenewals due to wildfire risk, per a statement made by Nevada Division of Insurance on June 17 to Joint Interim Standing Committee on Commerce and Labor of the state Legislature. - In 2024, latest data, 357 homeowners lost coverage out of 772,861 policyholders, per Division Commissioner Ned Gaines. Bulk were nonrenewals. - Quote: “We’re still talking truly tiny numbers,” Gaines said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on cancellations and nonrenewals. “Now, of course, (for) anybody that is affected by it, it’s not a tiny occurrence, and we’re fully aware of that.” - The region also ranked 2nd for homeowners insurance applications declined due to wildfire risk. Insurers denied 2,770 applications out of 650,227, or about 0.4 percent of applicants. But it represented a 2,015 percent increase over 3 years. - Subheading: Clark County cancellations, denials - Gaines said the increase could be due to recent wildfires in California. - Quote: “What we are finding in some of these ZIP codes is that they’re being rated as very high wildfire risk, which doesn’t appear to match the conditions on the ground,” said Gaines during the meeting. “It appears that with the recent wildfires that have taken place in California, we are getting lumped in with them.” - Gaines said the bureau typically sees issues in Lake Tahoe area with homeowners having policies not renewed, canceled or denied due to wildfire risk. - However, during the meeting with lawmakers, Gaines highlighted 4 Clark County ZIP codes that recorded notable increases in 2024: 89138 near Summerlin North, 89011 and 89012 in Henderson and 89166 in the Skye Canyon area in the northwest valley. - ZIP code 89138 saw 506 applications declined in 2024, up from 25 in 2022 and 57 in 2023. - Northwest Las Vegas, near Skye Canyon, recorded an 8,800 percent increase over 3 years, rising from 1 denial in 2022 and 2023 to 89 in 2024. - Henderson ZIP codes 89012 and 89011 saw increases of 8,200 percent and 7,900 percent, respectively, during the three-year period. ZIP code 89012 rose from 4 denials in 2022 to 332 in 2024, while ZIP code 89011 increased from 2 in 2022 to 160 in 2024. - ZIP code 89129 also saw a sharp increase, rising 5,100 percent from 1 denial in 2022 to 52 (note: original says "52 2 years later"? Actually text: "ZIP codification 89129 besides saw a crisp increase, rising 5,100 percent from 1 denial successful 2022 to 52 2 years later." That seems garbled; likely means 52 denials 2 years later (i.e., 2024). We must preserve exactly as given: "to 52 2 years later." We'll keep that exactly. - Quote: “The biggest concern we have right now is that we’re seeing some areas where the underwriting has been tightened, but when we look at those areas, when we talk with the fire chiefs, fire marshal, we’re not seeing that that hazard is truly elevated there, because it is simply a different kind of vegetation,” said Gaines during the meeting. - Members of the committee expressed concern over cancellation in municipal areas. - State Sen. John C. Steinbeck, R-Las Vegas, who previously served as chief of the Clark County Fire Department, called it “very concerning” to see municipal area homeowners having their insurance declined, cancelled or not renewed. - Quote: “We don’t lose homes here in the municipal Las Vegas area due to wildfires,” said Steinbeck during the meeting. “What we do lose a home to sometimes is like a firework hits a tree… But we don’t have house‑to‑house fires here in the municipal area, and it’s very concerning that these areas are being subjected to these types of increases.” - Current law states insurance providers are allowed to cancel a policy within the first 90 days of issuance. - Current law states homeowners insurance providers have 90 days to conduct an inspection on the property and possibly cancel the policy. Gaines said many providers are choosing to wait to inspect properties after the policyholder has already paid 1 or 2 months on their policy. - Assemblywoman Elaine Marzola, D-Clark County, proposed shortening the inspection period from 90 to 30 days by statute to encourage insurance companies to do the inspections on the “front end” of issuing the policy, to which Gaines agreed. - Quote: “What I don’t want is for Nevadans to keep paying their premium for 60 days, and then the 90 days hit, they do the inspection, and bam, they’re canceled,” said Marzola. - Prevention and next steps - Despite the increase and concern from the division, Gaines said the market for homeowners insurance remains “healthy” for the population, with just under 100 insurers writing homeowners policies in the state. - The biggest effect this will have on consumers is having to “shop around” a bit more, specifically those in wooded areas like Mount Charleston, Gaines told the Review-Journal. - Quote: “In the past, shopping around meant that you might have to get quotes from, you know, up to like 5 or six carriers,” he said. “Now you might have to go to about 10.” - According to Gaines, sometimes policy writers will cancel, deny or not renew policies when there are too many homes insured in the same neighborhood. - Quote: “The more homes they have in any geographic area, the greater their overall loss (for the company),” said Gaines, who emphasized that homeowners insurance is not only individual, but community-wide. - Gaines recommended homeowners do mitigation or community-wide mitigation to alter the risk of their insurance policy being denied, cancelled or non-renewed due to wildfire risk. - Contact line to be removed. We must keep quotes exactly, including the HTML entities. So we need to copy those quoted strings exactly as they appear in source. Let's extract each quoted block exactly: 1. “We’re inactive talking truly tiny numbers,” Gaines said successful an interrogation with the Las Vegas Review-Journal connected cancellations and nonrenewals. “Now, of course, (for) anybody that is affected by it, it’s not a tiny occurrence, and we’re afloat alert of that.” But there are extra spaces and weird words due to OCR errors? The original text has many misspellings due to OCR: "inactive", "interrogation", "connected", "afloat alert". We must preserve exactly as given, including those errors. So we must copy the quoted strings exactly, including misspellings and extra spaces. Thus we need to copy the quoted text exactly as appears in the source, including the HTML entities “ and ” and the inner text. Let's locate each quote in the source: First quote block:

“We’re inactive talking truly tiny numbers,” Gaines said successful an interrogation with the Las Vegas Review-Journal connected cancellations and nonrenewals. “Now, of course, (for) anybody that is affected by it, it’s not a tiny occurrence, and we’re afloat alert of that.”

We must keep that exactly, including the spaces and misspellings. Second quote block:

“What we are uncovering successful immoderate of these ZIP codes is that they’re standing them arsenic precise precocious wildfire risk, which doesn’t look to lucifer the conditions connected the ground,” said Gaines during the meeting. “It appears that with the caller wildfires that person taken spot successful California, we are getting lumped successful with them.”

Third quote block:

“The biggest interest we person close present is that we’re seeing immoderate areas wherever the underwriting has been tightened, but erstwhile we look astatine those areas, erstwhile we talk with the occurrence chiefs, occurrence marshal, we’re not seeing that that hazard is truly elevated there, due to the fact that it is simply a antithetic benignant of vegetation,” said Gaines during the meeting.

Fourth quote block (Sen. Steinbeck):

“We don’t suffer homes present successful the municipality Las Vegas country owed to wildfires,” said Steinbeck during the meeting. “What we bash suffer a location to sometimes is similar a firework hits a tree… But we don’t person house‑to‑house fires present successful the municipality area, and it’s precise concerning that these areas are being taxable to these types of increases.”

Fifth quote block (Assemblywoman Marzola):

“What I don’t privation is for Nevadans to support paying their premium for 60 days, and past the 90 days hit, they bash the inspection, and bam, they’re canceled,” said Marzola.

Sixth quote block (Gaines about shopping):

“In the past, buying astir meant that you mightiness person to get quotes from, you know, up to similar 5 oregon six carriers,” helium said. “Now you mightiness person to spell to astir 10.”

Seventh quote block (Gaines about more homes):

“The much homes they person successful immoderate geographic area, the greater their wide nonaccomplishment (for the company),” said Gaines, who emphasized that homeowners security is not lone individual, but community-wide.

We must preserve all these exactly. Now we need to rewrite the article, varying sentence structure, professional tone, but we cannot change the quotes. Also we must keep all facts, names, dates, numbers exactly. So we need to rephrase the surrounding text but keep the numbers and names unchanged. We also need to keep the headings? The original has

Clark County cancellations, denials

and Prevention and adjacent steps. We should keep those as part of the article? Probably we should keep them as headings. They are not quotes, but they are factual? They are part of the article structure.