Ghaziabad apartment fire: A fire that tore through a residential high-rise in Ghaziabad this week has brought a familiar yet often-ignored risk into sharp focus: how prepared urban households are to deal with sudden, large financial losses.

The incident has once again highlighted a key question for urban homeowners and tenants alike: how to protect themselves financially when such events occur.

Why home insurance is critical

Ashwini Dubey, Business Head for Home Insurance at Policybazaar.com, put it plainly in an interview with Business Today TV shortly after the incident. "Insurance is a way with which you can protect yourself financially at least from such events or from any losses that you suffer due to such events. Home insurance is very important. It is available to anybody and everybody who wants to buy it."

As cities expand vertically, risks multiply. High-rise living means a fire in one flat can quickly spread to others, as seen in Ghaziabad. Home insurance acts as a financial buffer, covering both the structure and the contents of a home.

Dubey pointed out that such policies are widely accessible. “Home insurance is very important. It is available to anybody and everybody who can and who wants to buy it. For anybody who lives in a high-rise, anybody who lives in a standalone house, home insurance is available for them to purchase.”

What exactly does it cover

Most home insurance policies are designed to cover a wide range of losses. These include the building structure, household contents, and in some cases even external additions.

“They cover everything and anything under the sun, everything that is inside the house, every the structure of the house,” Dubey said.

This typically includes appliances, furniture, electronics, personal belongings, and even valuables like jewellery and cash. However, there are limits. Some policies cap jewellery coverage at ₹5 lakh or ₹10 lakh, and not all policies include cash.

Even newer additions like solar panels can be covered under certain plans.

How to decide the right coverage

The amount of insurance depends on whether the resident is a tenant or a homeowner.

For tenants, the focus is on personal belongings. “you can take a rough estimate of how many air conditioners you have how many televisions fridge washing machine et cetera… make a list… and that is the amount that you can get insured for items within the house,” Dubey said.

For homeowners, the calculation extends to the structure itself. Experts suggest using construction cost benchmarks such as CPWD plinth area rates to arrive at a reasonable estimate.

What about fires from neighbouring flats? Does home insurance cover that as well?

The Ghaziabad fire began in one flat but spread to others, a common risk in dense housing complexes.

Dubey said individual policies still offer protection. “even if the fire originated in a neighbor's house… their home will be covered from their own home insurance policy.”

While liability clauses in a neighbour’s policy may offer some compensation, that cover is usually limited. The safer option is to have one’s own insurance in place.

What you must check in before purchasing a home indurance policy?

Not all policies are identical, and coverage gaps can prove costly.

“Loss or fire due to overheating, short circuit… these things you should look at being covered,” Dubey said, pointing to common causes of fires during extreme summers.

Buyers should also pay attention to sub limits, especially for valuables, and ensure the policy is taken in the name of the property owner.

“Please buy a policy in the name of the home owner not in the name of a somebody else,” he added.

Add ons such as accidental damage, loss of life, or even cyber risk coverage are also available in some plans.

How affordable is home insurance

Despite its wide coverage, home insurance remains relatively inexpensive.

Dubey noted that policies covering ₹30 lakh to ₹40 lakh worth of contents can cost as little as ₹1,000 to ₹1,200 a year. Even broader coverage of ₹40 lakh to ₹50 lakh can be secured for under ₹2,000 annually.

“Home insurance is extremely affordable… 1200 rupees is nothing,” he said, comparing the cost to the potential scale of losses in a fire.

The bigger picture

The Ghaziabad incident ended without casualties, but it underlines how quickly damage can spread in urban housing.

With rising temperatures, electrical loads, and dense construction, such incidents are becoming more frequent. As Dubey put it, “with these incidences becoming more and more common… it's extremely important somebody to consider at least having a home charge policy.”

For many urban households, the question is no longer whether a fire can happen, but whether they are financially prepared when it does.