Property insurers have collectively reserved more than $200 million Canadian ($146.6 million) to pay property owners whose homes and businesses were lost in the rash of brushfires that have been ravaging British Columbia since late July. “And we expect that to climb,” said Dennis Prouse, manager of government relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada in Vancouver. “Fires are everywhere throughout the province.” The blazes represent the largest insured fire loss in Canadian history, according to the IBC. Nearly 600 fires are still burning, most of them caused by lightning, according to the British Columbia government’s Provincial Emergency Program. At least 300 homes and one large commercial business were lost in the fires.
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