KatRisk, a provider of catastrophe risk modeling and analytics to the insurance and reinsurance industry, has launched a new generation of wildfire risk capabilities.
The solution combines Technosylva’s physics-based wildfire science with KatRisk’s catastrophe modeling and portfolio analysis technology to provide insurers with a more detailed view of wildfire risk, the company said.
KatRisk said the release reflects the growing need for more advanced wildfire assessments as fires become increasingly severe and unpredictable.
Traditional methods often rely on historical damage data and static hazard maps, which may not fully capture today’s changing wildfire conditions, the company said. KatRisk says its latest feature is designed to simulate how fires ignite, spread, intensify and ultimately lead to financial losses under changing environmental conditions.
The platform is built on Technosylva’s physics-based wildfire modeling technology, which has been developed for more than three decades. The technology is used by 40 major utilities, including about 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as organizations such as CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service and wildfire agencies operating in more than a dozen countries.
“Wildfire risk is no longer fixed,” commented KatRisk managing director Martyn Sutton. “The conditions that trigger catastrophic fires are changing rapidly, but many traditional approaches still rely heavily on a historical view of risk. By integrating actionable fire behavior science directly into catastrophe analysis, we are helping insurers better understand not only where fires occur, but also what might happen next.”
KatRisk said its modeling approach differs from traditional wildfire catastrophe models by first focusing on the physical processes that drive wildfire behavior before translating those factors into insurance risks. These models consider the effects of fuel conditions, topography and slope, the effects of weather and wind on fire growth, how wildfire behavior changes over time, smoke and off-footprint effects, fire spread in urban areas, and accumulation of wildfire exposure across assemblages and geographic regions.
This approach enables companies to produce outputs that support underwriting, pricing, portfolio management and climate risk analysis, while retaining the scientific complexity behind the modeling.
New capabilities include wildfire spread modeling at 30-meter resolution across the continental United States, dynamic hazard assessment for short- and long-term planning, climate adjustment modeling over different scenarios and time scales, smoke impact modeling tied to fire physics and air quality index measurements, property and community vulnerability adjustments, and advanced urban fire modeling developed with CAL FIRE and PG&E.
The urban fire model has been validated against recent wildfire events, including the Palisades and Eaton fires. KatRisk also says its portfolio analysis engine can process event sets covering more than 50,000 years in seconds.
The launch comes as wildfire losses continue to put increasing pressure on global insurance markets, the company said. KatRisk said recent events, including the 2025 Los Angeles fires, have reinforced the need for forward-looking wildfire risk assessments based on current and emerging conditions, not just historical patterns.
“Technosylva’s wildfire science has been tested in frontline environments where decisions directly impact lives, infrastructure and critical services,” added Joaquin Ramirez, Technosylva CTO and founder. “Bringing this operational rigor into the insurance workflow creates a fundamentally different standard for understanding wildfire risk.”
KatRisk said the new wildfire functionality is part of KatRisk Intelligence, the company’s catastrophe risk modeling and hazard analysis platform, which also covers floods, severe convective storms, tropical cyclone winds and earthquake risks.
