Our Menifee house never burned. Can we claim the wildfire smoke and ash damage?

In the standard case, yes: fire is a named peril, and smoke damage from a wildland fire is claimed under the fire coverage even when the flames never reached the home. The Fairview Fire in September 2022 made the pattern local: Menifee homes miles from the burn took ash through vents and window tracks and smoke into ducts and soft contents. The claim lives on documentation: dates tied to the fire event, photographs of ash lines before any cleaning, and a residue assessment that maps where the smoke went. Clean nothing first; the assessment is the evidence.