Best Read Wildfire Headlines
Headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page with the most time spent reading.
#1 Panel Passes Bill to Curb Vacation Rentals, Boost Housing Supply After Lahaina Wildfire
Jul 29 2025 // Lawmakers on Maui passed legislation aimed at eliminating a large percentage of the Hawaiian island’s vacation rentals to address a housing shortage exacerbated by the wildfire that destroyed most of Lahaina two...
#2 Viewpoint: Smoke Damage from LA Wildfires Leaves Questions to Be Answered
Apr 2 2025 // The question has come up wondering if smoke damage is covered for those homes that were impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires but were not damaged by the actual fires. A cloud of smoke from a fire is larger than the actual...
#3 Californians Pay Billions for Power Companies’ Wildfire Prevention Efforts. Are They Cost-Effective?
Dec 5 2024 // Diane Moss lost her home in the Santa Monica Mountains after power lines ignited the apocalyptic Woolsey Fire in 2018. Since then, she’s pressed for a safer electric grid in California. “It’s so easy to...
#4 California Department of Insurance Completes Final Review of Wildfire Model
Jul 24 2025 // The California Department of Insurance completed a review of the state’s first wildfire catastrophe model, marking a dramatic change in the state’s property/casualty insurance ratemaking process. The new model...
#5 LA Neighbors See Different Post-Wildfire Rebuilding Options Due to Insurance Crisis
Feb 7 2025 // Before a wildfire ravaged their street in northwest Altadena, Louise Hamlin and Chris Wilson lived next door to each other in nearly identical houses. “I chose an old home in an old neighborhood because it has...
#6 Texas Panhandle Town Grapples with Recovery One Year After Devastating Wildfire
Feb 27 2025 // Past the terracotta canyons and sloping hills in the Texas Panhandle is a colorful, small town center. A vibrant mural of the town’s name greets visitors, the yellow and blue paint from a historic motel can be seen...
#7 Newsom Leans on Veteran Republican to Push $40 Billion California Fire Aid
Feb 28 2025 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom is enlisting veteran Republican lawmaker Ken Calvert to help push his $40 billion wildfire aid request through Congress and secure President Donald Trump’s backing for rebuilding...
#8 Porsches Destroyed by LA Wildfires Get New Life as Stained Glass Art
Aug 8 2025 // Ben Tuna is good at transforming rusted-out, patina-eaten wrecks into art. For the past few months, in a nondescript stucco warehouse on a sleepy street in Glendale, California, he has used stained-glass salvaged from...
#9 An Insurance Journalist’s Perspective on Southern California’a Wildfires
Apr 7 2025 // PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES It was pitch black in the house and the power was off. The Santa Ana winds were howling. As planned, my wife, Jenny, gathered our two dogs and cat and scurried them into her car as I shuttled...
#10 More Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air Due to Wildfires, Extreme Heat
Apr 25 2025 // Around 156 million Americans, nearly half of the US population, now live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, part of a trend toward declining air quality as climate change-related extreme weather events like...
#11 Los Angeles Pushes to Rebuild Homes Fast, Despite Wildfire Danger
Jan 17 2025 // California politicians are rushing to make it easier for residents to rebuild their homes incinerated in the Los Angeles firestorms. That means waiving green construction mandates designed to combat climate change —...
#12 Property-Catastrophe Reinsurance Rates Will Stop Dropping Post Wildfires: Execs
Feb 3 2025 // RenaissanceRe expects to incur about $750 million in losses from the January 2025 California wildfires—and anticipates that industrywide impacts should halt the drop in property-catastrophe reinsurance prices observed at...
#13 Newsom Seeks $18B for Utilities’ Wildfire Fund as California Faces Future Blazes
Jul 31 2025 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom is circulating a legislative proposal to shore up a state fund for utilities that’s at risk of being depleted following the deadly wildfires that struck Los Angeles County in January. The...
#14 Will California’s FAIR Plan Have Enough Cash for Its Wildfire Claims?
Jan 16 2025 // There has been some question about whether California’s insurer of last resort – the FAIR Plan – has enough cash on hand to pay for its share of wildfire claims. As surplus is inadequate and reinsurance has a...
#15 Mercury Expects to Lose $1.6B to $2B From LA Wildfires
Feb 13 2025 // Although Mercury Insurance Group expects gross losses from the 2025 California wildfires in the $1.6 billion-$2.0 billion range, potential subrogation and reinsurance recoveries will drop the ultimate bill down to $325...
#16 Utilities’ Extreme Plan to Stop Wildfires: Shut Off the Power
Oct 8 2024 // A growing number of utilities are resorting to an extreme measure to prevent their equipment from sparking catastrophic wildfires: turning off the power. Electric companies serving about 24 million homes and businesses...
#17 Smoke, Coverage Issues Cloud Wildfire Forecast: $35-$45B Losses Insured
Jan 17 2025 // CoreLogic announced a preliminary range of insured losses for the Eaton and Palisades Fires in Los Angeles of $35 billion to $45 billion, but there are a lot of factors that could change the numbers. “We don’t...
#18 LA Wildfires by the Numbers: Insured Losses, Total Losses, Ratings, Rates
Jan 24 2025 // The impact of the historic Los Angeles-area wildfires is being broadly examined and continually refined, with updates almost daily on insured losses, total economic losses and damages, credit ratings—and lately worrying...
#19 Wall Street Backs LA Wildfire Lawsuits, Chasing Billions
Jun 30 2025 // The Los Angeles wildfires have generated potentially thousands of new clients for lawyers and prospects for billions in fees. Wall Street wants in on the action, too. The chance at a piece of strong returns has encouraged...
#20 Malibu Retrofit at $300,000 Shows Limits of Wildfire-Prepping
Nov 5 2024 // Evelin Weber and her neighbors fled their Malibu homes as the deadly Woolsey Fire tore across the California coast in 2018. Ever since, haunted by fears of another blaze, she’s spent $300,000 on fireproofing her...
