A new fire protection technology for wood could help to reshape how Bermuda’s insurers and reinsurers price wildfire risk within 18 to 24 months, according to Wes Bolsen, the Denver-based CEO of CitroTech Inc, the provider of the recognised fire inhibitor.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Mr Bolsen said CitroTech is applied directly to lumber and other cellulosic building materials so they resist burning when exposed to wildfire.

The timing is key for Bermuda, where insurers and reinsurers play an outsize role in underwriting United States property catastrophe risk, including wildfire-exposed portfolios. Bermudian-based carriers are expected to absorb close to $10 billion in insured losses from the January 2025 California wildfires, while total catastrophe exposure underwritten from the island exceeds $220 billion globally, according to regulatory and market estimates.

If loss severity can be reduced at scale, he suggested, reinsurers could avoid some of the most severe tail outcomes and reduce volatility across their property portfolios.

He said the company sees its biggest early opportunity in large commercial and infrastructure projects, where the risk exposure of builders is high.

“Even if a fire started in one corner, one portion, what happens is it doesn’t consume the whole structure. What it would do is charge this little corner, and then you would replace maybe that one small portion,” he said.

The system is also designed to support safe evacuations. “What happens is the humans evacuate, and then they turn on the system to spray CitroTech at home. They can even do it remotely,” Mr Bolsen said, adding: “You don't need to stay and fight the fire to save your home.”

Mr Bolsen added that failing to treat construction materials will soon be seen as unacceptable. “I think it's going to become irresponsible to not be treating some of that raw lumber, even during the construction phase, as it is a major risk producer,” he said.

CitroTech is already in talks with insurers and global reinsurers about how the technology can cut expected wildfire losses. “We believe we can drive insurance down for homeowners that are adopting this system,” Mr Bolsen said. “We’re really starting to have these conversations everywhere from insurers to reinsurers.”

The company is in talks with innovative insurers and reinsurers such as Stand, which provides homeowners coverage for properties in high-risk areas and just raised $35 million in a Series B funding round in October, with plans to expand to Florida.

CitroTech’s backers see formal catastrophe modelling as the next phase in getting the technology embedded in insurance and reinsurance pricing. Mr Bolsen said working with cat modellers is the logical progression after early insurer and reinsurer interest.

Lloyd’s of London is among the major reinsurance players exploring its use, and CitroTech is already deploying the product in post-wildfire reconstruction. That includes in the wake of the Palisades Fire in California, where treated homes and the CitroSafe system are being used as part of “home hardening” in high-risk areas.

Regulatory and safety credentials are central to CitroTech’s pitch. The product has earned Environmental Protection Agency Safer Choice status and meets ASTM E84 standards for Class A fire-rated materials.

Looking ahead, Mr Bolsen expects adoption to move quickly once insurers fully engage, particularly in wildfire-exposed markets.

He said: “It's just a matter of saying that starting 12 to 18 months from now, you have to do that”, adding that they can be made a de facto standard for insurability in high-risk regions.