People with insufficient home insurance more likely to risk their lives in bushfires, experts say

People with little or no insurance sometimes risk their lives to protect their homes from bushfire. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/Reuters

People are more likely to risk their lives in bushfires if they are uninsured or underinsured, experts have said.

In the chaos of an approaching fire, most people struggle to make rational decisions; having no house insurance could feed into making the dangerous decision to stay and protect a home, bushfire behaviour and management professor at the University of Melbourne, Trent Penman, said.