IBHS Newsroom
RICHBURG, SC, June 9, 2026 – The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) today announces updates to its Wildfire Prepared program, introducing formal standards for multifamily properties and neighborhoods alongside updated requirements for single-family homes.
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Amanda Aycock
PR Manager
aaycock@ibhs.org
803-203-5202
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Who is IBHS?
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is a nonprofit research organization advancing the science of property resilience. Through full-scale testing, field research, and real-world analysis, IBHS develops practical, science-based guidance to help make homes and businesses stronger against severe weather and wildfire.
Our mission is to educate the building industry, inform the public, and drive meaningful change that reduces property damage and improves community resilience. We invite media, partners, homeowners, business owners, and industry professionals to connect with us and share IBHS resources.
IBHS.org
IBHS.org is the primary source for IBHS research, guidance, and resources. The site offers science-based recommendations and projects that help homeowners and business owners reduce damage from natural disasters, including wind, hail, hurricanes, severe storms, wildfire, and other weather-related hazards.
FORTIFIED.org
FORTIFIED is a nationally recognized construction and re-roofing standard developed by IBHS to help strengthen homes and commercial buildings against severe weather. Based on more than 20 years of scientific research and real-world testing, FORTIFIED goes beyond typical building codes to improve performance against hazards such as high winds, hurricanes, hail, and severe storms. Visit FORTIFIED.org.
WildfirePrepared.org
Wildfire Prepared designation program helps homeowners, multifamily property owners, builders, and communities take science-based actions proven to reduce wildfire risk. The program provides clear guidance to address defensible space, building vulnerabilities, and ignition pathways to improve a structure’s resilience during a wildfire. Visit WildfirePrepared.org.
IBHS Visual Assets
The IBHS Research Center provides a rare glimpse into the devastating effects of natural disasters on homes and businesses when communities are evacuated and news cameras are no longer able to safely enter the area. From dramatic footage of hurricane-force wind and water impacting homes to full-scale homes subjected to ember storms, IBHS has video to help visualize the effects of extreme weather across the built environment. Several examples are below – please contact us for additional resources.
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IBHS Expert Insights
Roy E. Wright
“The goal of climate adaptation is to take actions today to reduce losses tomorrow. Recognizing that we can’t predict specific weather events next month, much less over the next several decades, IBHS knows that putting proven building science solutions in place now will reduce disaster losses in the future. Given its important societal and economic benefits, adaptation is a sound fiscal strategy, public health objective, and humanitarian obligation.”
Anne D. Cope, PhD, P.E.
“We’ve calculated that an unsealed roof deck allows up to 60% of the rain that hits a damaged roof to enter into the attic. A sealed roof deck can reduce water entry by as much as 95%. If all the shingles came off a 2,000-square-foot unsealed roof, up to 750 gallons of water could enter the attic for every inch of rain that falls – equivalent to 9 bathtubs full of water.”