L.A. wildfires News

How Better Water Systems Can Help a City Survive The Next Firestorm

Santa Rosa. Paradise. Boulder County. Lahaina. Los Angeles. All are places that have shown that American cities and their water systems weren’t built to withstand wildfire, experts say. Related: California Wildfire Mitigation And Recovery Bill Package Introduced Hydrants trickled. Pumps …

LA Mayor Removes Fire Chief in Fallout From Palisades Blaze

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass removed Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, citing failures in the department’s response to the devastating Palisades wildfire. Bass appointed former LAFD Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year LAFD veteran, as interim chief while the city launches …

Zurich Insurance Sees $200 Million LA Wildfire Loss

Zurich Insurance Group AG is expecting pretax losses of $200 million from the January California wildfires as the insurer reported a 5% gain in profit for 2024. Group operating profit rose to $7.75 billion in the year, the company said …

AM Best Revises Outlooks to Negative for Mercury and Subsidiaries Over LA Wildfires

AM Best revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a” (Excellent) for the members of Mercury Casualty Group. Concurrently, AM Best revised …

Airbnb Billionaire Plans Factory-Built Homes for LA Fire Victims

Billionaire Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb Inc. and a board member of Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., plans to donate $15 million of factory-built dwellings to victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. The pre-fabricated houses — made by Gebbia’s startup, …

Farmers Estimates $600M in Losses from LA Wildfires

Farmers said on Wednesday that it expects losses from the Los Angeles wildfires last month to reach an estimated $600 million. Insurance companies have so far paid out more than $6.9 billion for losses from the biggest two of the …

Scientists Racing to Discover Depth of Ocean Damage From LA Wildfires

On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire. The water line was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines and dryers and metal appliances …

California Insurance Commissioner Rejects State Farm’s 22% Rate Request

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara did not approve an emergency, interim 22% rate request from State Farm, instead calling a meeting with the carrier to get some answers about the carrier’s financial situation and more. State Farm General earlier this …

California Wildfire Mitigation And Recovery Bill Package Introduced

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and a group of state lawmakers are pushing a 10-bill legislative package designed to improve disaster preparedness and help protect wildfire survivors. The bills intended focus are on consumer protection, climate resiliency and market strength. …

Los Angeles Sees Mudslides With Heavy Rains

Heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides in Los Angeles late Thursday and early Friday, as authorities ordered evacuations and warned of potentially dangerous conditions across land burned by last month’s devastating wildfires. About half a foot of rain has fallen …