Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Their Homes Survived The LA Wildfires; A Year Later They Fear Living in Them
Jan 7 2026 // “DANGER: Lead Work Area” reads a sign on a front door of an Altadena home. “May damage fertility or the unborn child. Causes damage to the central nervous system.” Block after block there are...
JPMorgan, Citi Extending Mortgage Relief for LA Wildfire Victims
Jan 6 2026 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom said a group of major banks have agreed to extend mortgage relief for Los Angeles wildfire victims, as the area struggles to rebuild one year after the devastating blazes. Wells Fargo &...
Morningstar: A Year Later, LA Wildfires Were ‘Significant Stress Event’ for Insurance
Jan 6 2026 // In a report one year on from the Los Angeles area wildfires in 2025, which started on Jan. 7, Morningstar DBS Research issued a perspective that called the fires “a significant stress event” for...
Millions at Risk of Los Angeles-Style Wildfires in Australia
Jan 6 2026 // Millions of people living on the expanding outskirts of Australia’s major cities face an increasing risk of urban wildfires similar to the deadly blazes in Los Angeles last year. Suburbs on the fringes of centers...
Woman Who Lost Home in LA Wildfire Sowed Hope Where Her Home Once Stood
Jan 6 2026 // Missi Dowd-Figueroa brought life back to the fire-ravaged plot where her home once stood—one sunflower at a time. The registered nurse and mother of three lost her 1898 farm-style house in the Eaton Fire, one of two...
Insurance Payments Now at $22.4B From LA Wildfires One Year Ago
Jan 5 2026 // Insurers have paid more than $22.4 billion on tens of thousands of claims from the Los Angles wildfires that broke out a year ago on Jan. 7. The claims data, which comes from the California Department of Insurance, shows...
[Video] Wildfires, Lawsuits, AI, and M&A: A Look Back at Insurance in 2025
Dec 31 2025 // Insurance Journal recaps the biggest stories of 2025—across all of our regions—from record-breaking wildfires and climate losses to broker mega-deals, litigation reform, cyber threats, AI-driven layoffs, and signs of...
Rare Weather Warning Issued as Strong Gusts Fuel Colorado Wildfire Threats
Dec 22 2025 // The National Weather Service on Friday issued a rare warning for part of Colorado’s Front Range as hurricane-force winds and tinder dry conditions boosted the threat of wildfire across several counties, while flood...
Catastrophe Bonds Linked to Wildfires Lose ‘Untouchable’ Status
Dec 19 2025 // Alternative investment managers are starting to take a serious interest in catastrophe bonds tied to wildfires, moving into a risk category that just a few years ago was seen as too difficult to model. More than $5 billion...
Texas Sues Utility Company Xcel Over ‘Blatant Negligence’ in Fatal Wildfire
Dec 17 2025 // Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Xcel Energy Inc., accusing the utility company of “blatant negligence” over its role in the Smokehouse Creek wildfire that killed three people and caused more than $1...
California Again Delays Wildfire Protection Rules for Homes
Dec 10 2025 // A California state agency won’t meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s year-end deadline to finish long-delayed regulations to protect homes from wildfires, rules that experts say could have limited the destruction of the...
Arizona Study Group Issues Report on Homeowners Insurance and Wildfire Risk
Dec 5 2025 // A report from a regulator-created group found that a multifaceted approach to addressing wildfires and lack of insurance affordability in Arizona should be tackled with a multifaceted approach that includes homeowners,...
Report Asks Washington Lawmakers to Require Insurers to Better Track Wildfire Risk
Dec 3 2025 // A working group on wildfires in Washington wants the state Legislature to consider requiring insurers to internally track instances in which wildfire risk materially contributes to a policy nonrenewal, cancellation or...
Massive Wildfire Liabilities Push Utilities to Use AI to Stop Blazes
Nov 25 2025 // On the hunt for cheap and fast strategies to prevent deadly wildfires, utilities across the US and Europeare contracting with a handful of artificial intelligence startups to map wildfire risk along thousands of miles of...
Buffett Utility Reaches Oregon Wildfire Deal With Nearly 1,500 Victims
Nov 20 2025 // Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp said it has reached a $150 million settlement with 1,434 plaintiffs associated with the 2020 Labor Day fires in Oregon. The accord, disclosed Wednesday in a regulatory filing,...
LA County Launches Investigation Into State Farm Over Wildfire Claims
Nov 13 2025 // Los Angeles County is conducting an investigation into State Farm’s handling of insurance claims from the devastating L.A. wildfires in January. The investigation was ordered by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors,...
Mounting Oregon Wildfire Claims Threaten Ratings of Berkshire’s PacifiCorp
Nov 13 2025 // A Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co.-owned utility is at risk of losing its investment-grade credit rating as it expects to have to pay up more money for litigation brought by victims of 2020 wildfires in Oregon. PacifiCorp...
New Zealand Firefighters Say Tongariro Wildfire Is Coming Under Control
Nov 10 2025 // A wildfire that swept across thousands of hectares of New Zealand’s Tongariro National Park appears to be coming under control, officials said. Residents are being allowed back into the area following an earlier...
Wildfire Victims Ask Gov. Newsom to Call for Insurance Commissioner’s Resignation
Nov 6 2025 // A few of the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires in January are asking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for the resignation of California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara over reforms Lara pushed that were designed...
Wildfire Forces Rural Community in Southern Texas to Evacuate
Oct 31 2025 // Thick smoke blanketed a rural community in southern Texas and many residents were ordered to evacuate as firefighters worked to contain a blaze Wednesday evening, officials said. The Mill Fire in Gregory, Texas, about 150...
