Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction experts available for media interviews regarding Fort McMurray wildfire

TORONTO, May 4, 2016 /CNW/ - Disaster mitigation experts from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) are available to answer media inquiries concerning the wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

ICLR experts below are available to answer questions relating to the effects of wildfire on homes and commercial structures, and about what home and business owners can do before wildfires strike to reduce potential damage to their properties. ICLR is a leading national centre of excellence on preparing for, repairing and rebuilding safer, stronger structures after wildfires and other disasters to make them more resilient.                                        

Paul Kovacs is founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University. He is Canada's leading authority on insurance, natural hazards and climate change and has been a contributing author to numerous international and Canadian reports on reducing the risk of loss from earthquakes, flood, severe wind and wildfire. He has written more than 200 publications and articles and is a passionate champion for insurance, disaster resilience and adaptation to climate extremes.

Glenn McGillivray is Managing Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. As an insurance writer and commentator, his work has been widely disseminated across Canada. Glenn has written more than 190 magazine and journal articles, publications and blogposts on a range of issues related to insurance, reinsurance, natural hazards and preparedness.

Additionally, independent wildfire expert Brian Stocks is available to answer questions pertaining to extreme fire behaviour, the nature of fires like the one currently impacting Fort McMurray, and some of the lessons learned from the May 2011 wildfire in Slave Lake, Alberta.

Brian Stocks served with the Canadian Forest Service in several capacities for almost 40 years, most recently as senior research scientist, before retiring in 2005. He is currently President of B.J. Stocks Wildfire Investigations and is adjunct professor, fire science, at the University of Toronto. He has a B.A. in forestry from the University of Toronto and an M.A. in forestry from the University of California, Berkeley. Brian served on the Wildfire Science Group as part of the Flat Top Complex Wildfire Review Committee, which provided key recommendations in relation to the May 2011 wildfire in Slave Lake, Alberta.

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Established in 1998 by Canada's property and casualty insurers, ICLR is an independent, not-for-profit research institute based in Toronto and at the Western University in London, Canada. ICLR is a centre of excellence for disaster loss prevention research and education. ICLR's research staff is internationally recognized for pioneering work in a number of fields including wind and seismic engineering, atmospheric sciences, water resources engineering and economics. Multi-disciplined research is a foundation for ICLR's work to build communities more resilient to disasters.

SOURCE Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

Media contact: Glenn McGillivray, Managing Director, ICLR, tel. [phone], ext. 3216, cell 416-277-5827, [email protected]