Arizona
Preparing Arizona houses for wildfires can save them. Here’s why and what to do
Senate hearings examine response to increasing wildfire threat
Wildfire mitigation and disaster recovery were at the top of the agenda as the U.S. Fire Administration and the Department of Homeland Security testified in front of lawmakers on how to properly respond to the increasing threat.
Scripps News
Arizona home insurance costs are soaring, and a growing number of homeowners near wildfire risk areas can’t even get insurance.
Wildfires are a big driver behind the state’s growing home insurance problems.
The Southern California fires make it clear wildfires are no longer seasonal, and the devastated area’s losses likely mean higher rates for Arizona property owners.
Wildfires aren’t just a rural problem. Metro Phoenix has had its share. In 2005, the Cave Creek Complex Fire that started in north Scottsdale burned 243,950 acres.
Many homeowners in both rural and urban areas can do more to protect their homes and communities from fire.
“Fire mitigation is key for protecting homes,” said Lori Munn, deputy director of insurance in the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, which formed the Resiliency and Mitigation Council to address wildfire damage prevention, home insurance problems and high costs.
Pricey home insurance, frustrated homeowners
Arizona led the nation for the biggest increase in home insurance costs between 2019 and mid-2024, according to one survey.
The Resiliency and Mitigation Council is working on getting updated information on average policy costs.
Mark Perkins’ insurance premium on his Phoenix house near South Mountain skyrocketed more than 200% from $2,500 to $7,600 last year.
“They (the insurer) said there was a 35% increase in rates across the board in Arizona, and the rest was due to perceived increase in fire risk,” he said.
He said the “desert there is pretty sparse” near his house.
Perkins switched insurers and kept his costs close to what they had been the previous year.
Insurers aren’t supposed to pass costs from natural disasters outside Arizona to Arizona homeowners.
“We don’t allow insurers to use losses on a hurricane in Florida to raise rates in Arizona,” said Tom Zuppan, property insurance analyst at the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions.
But that’s hard to regulate.
Cigarettes and campfires: 7 ways you can accidentally start a wildfire
Wildfires devastate ecosystems and communities alike and can be ignited unintentionally. Here are 7 ways you can accidentally start a wildfire.
The Republic
Homeowners jumping through ‘a lot of hoops’ for lower insurance rates
Since 1990, the number of Arizona houses in Wildland Urban Interface areas, known as WUIs, has more than doubled.
Those areas, where development and vacant land meet, are at high risk for wildfire, said Bill Boyd, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
He said fire mitigation efforts are key to addressing Arizona’s home insurance problems.
New River homeowner Mark Dorsey recently “jumped through a lot of hoops” to get his insurance renewed.
He had to provide distances from his home to fire stations and hydrants, and photos of all sides of the house after cutting a lot of brush and trees to create a “buffer zone.”
“It was pretty nerve-wracking,” Dorsey said.
Some Maui and Southern California homeowners, who protected their homes with the right building materials and cleaned up weeds and other vegetation, were able to save their houses.
In the 2013 deadly Yarnell Hill Fire near Prescott, 60 homes with brush cleared around them survived while more than 500 others were destroyed. Arizona began funding wildfire mitigation work after that fire that killed 19 firefighters.
What homeowners can do to mitigate wildfire risks
Some insurers may be more willing to cover houses if the owners try to reduce wildfire risks, say insurance experts.
There’s no data yet on how effective mitigation work is in lowering rates or retaining a policy, but the Mitigation Council is also working on getting that.
Insurance and fire experts say mitigation efforts are important not just for individual property owners. Communities should work together on mitigation, they say, because embers move quickly from home to home, driving wildfires like the ones in the Los Angeles area.
Several groups and government agencies offer mitigation guidance, including Firewise USA, FEMA, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes and local fire departments.
Kate Stillwell, co-founder of the app Firebreak Risk, which identifies homeowners’ biggest wildfire risks and provides solutions, said mitigation work can be overwhelming for property owners and expensive.
She said DYI mitigation work costing $200 or less that homeowners can do on weekends is the most popular.
Fire mitigation strategies homeowners can undertake include:
- Keep yards clear of flammable debris.
- Move firewood away from structures.
- Build with fire-resistant material, including composite, clay, metal, brick and concrete.
- Limit flammable plants and trees within 100 feet of the home, which is considered the standard space needed to defend from a wildfire.
- Trim branches that overhang a home, porch or deck.
- Get dual-paned, tempered glass windows.
- Remove flammable materials from carports.
- Keep roofs and gutters free of leaves and pine needles.
But mitigation is tough for some homeowners to maintain, and it doesn’t always help get a property insured or lower rates.
Randy Scott owns a Pinetop home and said a lot of trees near his community were cut down in efforts to stop or slow fires.
Despite those efforts, he said his community’s insurance policy wasn’t renewed in 2023. To get insurance, the annual premium quadrupled from $50,000 to $200,000. The new policy also provides less coverage.
“The previous insurer said it wasn’t renewing because of our wildfire rating,” said Scott, who is president of his community’s homeowner association. “It’s hard to have to tell residents they can’t grill on their patios or store their fireplace logs outside.”
Reach the reporter at catherine.reagor@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8040. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CatherineReagor.
Arizona
NAU launches first-of-its-kind engineering degree to fast-track Arizona’s future workforce – The NAU Review
As Arizona’s semiconductor and advanced manufacturing industries continue to grow at a rapid pace, Northern Arizona University’s Steve Sanghi College of Engineering is launching a new degree program designed to help meet the state’s workforce needs.
Beginning this fall, NAU will offer a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Engineering Technology, a flexible, workforce-focused degree pathway that prepares students for careers in microelectronics, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing in as little as three years. The 90-credit bachelor’s degree creates a more accessible pathway into engineering careers through a hands-on, applied curriculum and a streamlined transfer model with Arizona community colleges.
The program follows a 45-45 completion structure, allowing students to complete 45 credits at a community college and 45 credits through NAU. Courses will be delivered through synchronous remote instruction at NAU’s North Valley campus in Phoenix and at Pima Community College in Tucson, increasing access for statewide students.
Addressing Arizona’s growing semiconductor workforce
Designed with workforce readiness in mind, the program emphasizes practical engineering application, systems implementation, testing, quality control, systems analysis, manufacturing, fabrication, process control and project management. Students will gain technical and problem-solving skills aligned with the needs of Arizona’s rapidly evolving manufacturing economy.
“This new bachelor’s degree empowers students to identify real-world engineering challenges and develop practical solutions,” said James Palmer, associate dean for academic affairs at the Steve Sanghi College of Engineering. “We are creating a more accessible pathway into engineering careers while preparing graduates to support Arizona’s growing microelectronics and semiconductor industry.”
Arizona has emerged as one of the nation’s fastest-growing semiconductor hubs, with more than $200 billion in semiconductor-related investments announced in the Greater Phoenix region since 2020, including expansions from Intel, TSMC and Amkor Technology. TSMC alone has committed up to $165 billion toward Arizona operations, including multiple fabrication plants and advanced packaging facilities expected to create thousands of technical and manufacturing jobs.
Industry demand continues to grow for professionals with applied engineering and advanced manufacturing skills in areas such as process engineering, manufacturing systems, equipment operations and yield enhancement. NAU’s new degree program was developed to help students quickly enter these high-demand career fields while supporting Arizona’s long-term economic growth and domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
The program also aligns with NAU’s strategic commitment to expanding access to affordable, student-centered educational opportunities that prepare graduates for meaningful careers and long-term success.
Students interested in learning more about the Bachelor of Professional Studies in Engineering Technology program should contact SCE@nau.edu.
PHOENIX (AP) — The two Republican congressmen running for Arizona governor pitched themselves at a debate Wednesday as the only candidate with broad enough voter appeal to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs amid the state’s affordability struggles.
U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, who is the GOP primary’s frontrunner and has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, portrayed himself as being able to cross party lines and having the right experience to be the state’s chief executive.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind, if you look at the polling data that you’re going to find, I am the most competitive with Katie Hobbs of anybody on this stage in any Republican in the state,” Biggs said.
U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, who has survived three tough Democratic challenges in recent years, believes his focus on government finances and his drive to bring new business to the state make him the singular Republican candidate.
“These are wonderful people, but they’ve never actually been in the great battle,” Schweikert said of Biggs and two other Republican opponents.
Businessman Scott Neely, who ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2022, said after the debate that if Biggs wins the primary, Republicans will lose the election.
The winner of the July 21 primary will face Hobbs, who’s running unopposed in the primary.
Biggs has served five terms in the U.S. House, representing a heavily GOP district in the eastern Phoenix suburbs and serving at one time as chairman of the ultra-right U.S. House Freedom Caucus.
Before that, Biggs served in the Arizona Legislature from 2003 through 2016, including four years as president of the state Senate. He battled with then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer on a Medicaid expansion in 2013 and pushed school choice measures and bills targeting abortion providers.
Biggs is one of Trump’s top defenders in Congress and supported Trump’s false claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Schweikert, a budget hawk known for railing against government debt, has represented an affluent district that includes parts of northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale for eight terms. He served in the Arizona House in the 1990s and as Maricopa County’s treasurer in the 2000s.
Schweikert has focused his congressional career on sounding the alarm about the federal budget deficit and the ballooning U.S. debt, often in late-night speeches to a nearly empty House chamber and bleary-eyed C-SPAN viewers. Schweikert has praised Trump’s 2017 tax cuts but has called for more spending cuts to reduce federal borrowing.
His reputation was tarnished by ethics scandals. In 2022, he received a $125,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission for misappropriating campaign funds. Two years prior, he agreed to pay a $50,000 fine and accept 11 campaign finance violations after an investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Ethics. In his last three general campaigns for Congress, Schweikert staved off challenges from Democrats. Biggs voiced support for Arizona’s recent passage of a three-year moratorium on tax incentives for new data centers – a move Hobbs also has touted. “They shouldn’t be given a break,” Biggs said, noting the large amounts of power and water that data centers use.
Schweikert bemoaned Arizona’s unfavorable affordability rankings as “pretty miserable,” but said consumer prices don’t come down magically. He vowed to aggressively recruit businesses to Arizona and push for wage growth.
Both congressmen were asked about the expired healthcare subsidies for those getting coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“We’re going to have to deal with the reality of subsidization of everything in the economy is not going to work,” Schweikert said.
Biggs said he introduced legislation in Congress to bring down healthcare costs and also voiced support for Trump’s proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit.
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