California Wildfires News

California Commissioner Moves to Implement Insurance Rate Review Reforms

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Friday released a statement on his latest administrative action designed to address the state’s homeowners insurance crisis. Lara today issued a bulletin implementing rate review reforms he says will help stabilize the state’s insurance …

Toilet Paper and Flat Tires: The Strange Ways Californians Ignite Wildfires

Of all the insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome? Humans. People do dangerous things, things that start wildfires. Pushing …

Wildfire Smoke May Be Worse for Your Brain Than Other Air Pollution, Study Says

Wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution, according to new research linking it to an increased risk of dementia. The findings, reported Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as …

Fires in The West Are Becoming Ever Bigger, Consuming. Why and What Can Be Done?

Decades of snuffing out fires at the first sign of smoke combined with climate change have laid the groundwork for a massive wildfire in northern California and scores of smaller ones across the western U.S. and Canada, experts say. These …

California Commissioner Announces FAIR Plan Modernization Deal

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said on Friday that he and the California Fair Plan have agreed to establishing a new high value commercial coverage option with limits up to $20 million per building and other steps that he said …

How California’s Homeowners Insurance Crisis Is Affecting Brokers

A growing homeowners insurance crisis for Californians is straining brokers who must work harder to get increasingly expensive and more frequently unavailable coverage for their clients, a crisis many of them blame on regulations and wildfires. Wildfires have made the …

Senate Hopeful Pushes Insurance Revamp During California ‘Gouging’

US Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who’s running for the Senate, is vowing to take another shot at reining in soaring home insurance rates that he says are “gouging” his constituents. To do so, Schiff is casting a spotlight …

PG&E Cut Power to 2,000 as Extreme Heat Bakes California

PG&E Corp. cut power to about 2,000 homes and businesses in Northern California as triple-digit temperatures, strong winds and low humidity heightened the risk of wildfires. The utility said it preemptively shut power across small areas of eight counties and …

California Wildfire Outlook: ‘A Challenging Season for Firefighters’

While the official start to California’s wildfire season is still a ways off, the best forecast of what’s ahead may be to look back on the year so far, and so far it’s been far busier for firefighters than last …

Wildfire Threats Make Utilities Uninsurable in US West

Trinity Public Utilities District’s power lines snake through the lower reaches of the Cascade Range, a rugged, remote and densely forested terrain in Northern California that has some of the highest wildfire risk in the country. But for several years, …