Wildfire-related home insurance cancellations and declinations — refusals to insure applicants — have skyrocketed in pockets of Nevada, and insurance regulators couldn’t give state lawmakers a solid explanation as to why Wednesday.

More fire-prone areas of Nevada, in particular Northern Nevada, saw increases in the number of insurance policies that were canceled and applications that were rejected in the last three years.

ZIP codes in Henderson and Las Vegas have also seen an increase in cancellations and declinations, much to the surprise of state officials, Ned Gaines, the commissioner of insurance for the Nevada Division of Insurance told the interim Committee on Commerce and Labor.

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Between the data that was obtained by the division and conversations officials had with other states, Gaines suspects insurance companies are lumping Nevada in with California’s wildfire risk assessments that allows for companies to decline applications.

“They’re taking this approach that essentially the entirety of Western states have the same type of risk, same vegetation makeup, same topography, which is not true,” Gaines said. “Nevada is very, very different from California. Nevada also takes a very different approach when it comes to fighting wildfires.”

The division compiled three years of data through 2024.

Overall there has been a “steep increase” in the number of declinations over the period — there were 2,400 applications declined in 2022, and that figure grew to 13,000 by 2024.

In a presentation to state lawmakers, the Division of Insurance broke down the top ten ZIP codes in Nevada that saw the largest numerical and percentage increase of home insurance applications declined or canceled.

The Pahrump ZIP code 89048 saw a nearly 13,000% increase in declination over the three-year period. Only one insurance application was declined in 2022 compared to 129 in 2024

Henderson ZIP code 89012 had only four applications declined in 2023. That number grew to 160 by 2024, a roughly 8,200% increase.

Democratic state Senator Julie Pazina, whose district includes portions of Henderson, questioned what factors drove the high increase, and whether there were any indicators that the trend had worsened or improved in 2025.

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“Henderson is where things start getting a little quirky, and we are having to do some additional research into what’s driving that,” Gaines said.

The state’s ability to analyze the problem is limited because companies aren’t legally required to share everything that goes into their decisions with the division, he said.

“There are portions of the algorithms and the data points that go into the models” and companies “are allowed to hold that as confidential,” Gaines said. “We don’t get a full picture of what is making up the model.”

The division, he added, is putting together a bulletin on the instances that allow companies to cancel or deny policies to remind companies “that we were not going to allow this type of action.”

Democratic Assemblymember Brittney Miller said she was concerned that the risk assessments were confidential, and questioned if the division sought any type of enforcement against insurance companies, including seeking fines.

“Enforcement action, to be quite honest, is not a bulletin,” Miller said. “That’s just a reminder of what the standards and expectations and laws say.”

Gaines said though the division can issue fines if companies unjustly cancel or decline policies, they haven’t as of yet.

“We have not taken any enforcement action yet, because this was a new issue that was brought to us,” Gaines said, adding “I don’t have hard evidence of any carrier” doing anything wrong.

“These are all anecdotal,” he added. “I’m hearing it from enough sources that tell me there is something going on.”

There were 149,000 policies that were canceled or didn’t get renewed in 2024, of which 2,703 were specifically related to wildfire risk.

Parts of Washoe County, including the heavily forested and more fire-prone Incline Village, being among the highest cancellations in the states makes more sense than some other portions of the state, Gaines said.

The area saw a nearly 14% increase in policies that weren’t renewed.

The second highest number was in Clark County, which took the division by surprise, Gaines said.

While he acknowledged some areas, including Mount Charleston, have been wildfire prone, other areas in the City of Las Vegas that also had an increase in cancellations didn’t make sense, he said.

“We have heard anecdotally from consumers, fire chiefs, and other stakeholders that even people within the city limits of Las Vegas and the Paradise area are being non-renewed for wildfire,” Gaines told lawmakers. “That is very confusing to us. While the risk is not zero, it is much lower within the city limits than it would be in, say, the Mount Charleston area.”