Practical Property Peril Protections.

• Author: Dewalt, Sean

In Alaska, commercial property exposures range from natural events such as wind, wildland fires, earthquakes, landslides, and floods to human-caused risks like burglary, vandalism, and arson. While severe wind events and earthquakes are almost impossible to predict with any certainty, perils such as avalanches, landslides, and floods tend to fall back to the old real estate adage of "location, location, location." If the property is not susceptible to those risks thanks to distance, then the likelihood of a loss is nil. But for those day-to-day exposures that property owners are likely to encounter, the best defense is a solid offense. That means taking a proactive approach to property risk management to reduce the probability of losses. While it is understood that liability follows the property ownership, the focus here is on physical exposures and controls to limit risk incurred to structures and people.

The first step to protecting property is understanding the totality of vulnerabilities for the building. This is a risk assessment that can be easily conducted with the help of the commercial insurance carrier or loss control professional. The key to a complete, quality analysis is understanding not just the location of the property but also the operations at that individual location. Adequate controls for a multi-unit habitational occupancy may be significantly different than for a low-rise office building. Some operations have special hazards, which can include flammable and combustible liquids, spray-painting operations, commercial cooking, welding, and cutting. In buildings where these types of tasks are performed, a thorough review of the National Fire Protection Association regulations is necessary and should be adhered to closely.

There are a significant number of buildings in Alaska where mixed or multiple occupancies exist, such as restaurants or maintenance shops in the same location as apartments. These combinations of exposures pose a unique danger due to the comingling of high-risk special hazards and residential occupants. For many properties in this category, fire is a significant possibility, and the best mitigation solution to many of these potential perils includes active fire prevention and protection systems.

Private fire protection systems are fire safeguards at the property, such as fire extinguishers, alarms (both fire and smoke), and automatic sprinkler systems. Automatic sprinklers are the most reliable and...