Los Angeles is currently experiencing one of the worst fires they have ever seen. With over 40,000 acres up in flames, more than 100,000 people have been forced by the fire to leave their homes.
How do LA Residents Recover from this?
The raging fire that continues to take has already engulfed the homes of thousands of people all over Los Angeles County. With numerous people being unable to afford rising home insurance costs as the new year hit, their coverage went dark.
According to Summer Lin and Laurence Darmiento in their article in the Los Angeles Times, when interviewed, numerous people stated that their insurance companies either dropped their coverage back in 2024, or they could not afford to continue paying for the coverage of their home.
Seeing as the ongoing fires have taken so many homes, how will people unable to pay insurance coverage be financially capable of covering the cost of everything they have lost? Many simply will not be able to.
What does this mean for Los Angeles?
Looking ahead, seeing as the fire has taken so much, Los Angeles will face years of construction in order to rebuild. Not only will it take years for LA to see growth, but the fires will continue to take even after they are extinguished.
The fires have already caused a devastating amount of damage, accumulating $2.5 billion dollars in damages according to an article on NBC News titled “California leaders promise a quick rebuild, but that may put homes at risk of fire again.”
If there is one thing fires are good at doing, it is destroying hope.
With California residents already leaving in droves before the fires arrived, it is easy to assume that the number of residents leaving will be larger than those who choose to return.
After wildfires occur, no matter the state they take place in, supply and demand often shifts.
What does this mean for other states?
For states like Texas and even our own beloved Idaho, the population is likely to keep increasing. For years, it feels like Idaho has been growing faster than we are able to expand, making it hard to keep up with the population as it is. Hauser resident Jim Cleveland had a lot to say on the topic of increased housing prices.
“Housing prices over the last five years have increased dramatically,” Cleveland said, “I think it is a direct result of supply and demand. We have people from the coastal states that, for political or other reasons, are moving out of those states and into states like Idaho. Thus driving up housing prices across Idaho”.
Considering the fires across communities like the Palisades will have an impact on supply and demand throughout all of California, it will ultimately lead to having effects on other surrounding states. If these effects make their way into other states, younger citizens will experience higher difficulty when trying to afford the cost of living.
Due to the already increased costs, it would make it nearly impossible for a young adult to support themselves in the lower income jobs they have access to.
Some seniors at Lakeland High School have this fear that they may not be able to afford the cost of living if the population continues to increase.
“I feel like if I were to try to switch to another job, it would be really hard to live off the income I would be making,” Noah Best said.
How could the fires have been prevented?
California is a coastal state, meaning the underbrush is extremely vulnerable, and weather can reach severe extremes. With hot temperatures and typically high wind conditions like the Santa Ana winds, California created seemingly perfect conditions for the fires to exceed massive amounts of damage.
“I think more could have been done in forest management and wildfire prevention measures in these high-risk areas like the Palisades. Things like thinning, cutting, and removing underbrush and fuel, will ultimately prevent the spread and explosion of a fire, and give firefighters a chance to control it,” Cleveland said.
The political policies California is built on limit the control they have on things like these fires.
If certain wildfire prevention measures had been taken prior to the outbreak in the Palisades, the outcome of these fires would have been less costly and ultimately less devastating for families.
Not only were there certain measures that could have been put in place, but according to the article “Did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget” written by David Zahniser, Mayor Karen Bass released her budget plan for 2024-2025, which called for a 2.7% reduction towards the funding of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
By reducing funding to an essential factor in the safety of California, it has proven to be detrimental to residents in the Palisades area.
California has also been experiencing a severe drought, which accompanies the perfect weather conditions for these fires to continue burning.
How has Insurance Coverage Changed?
Back in 2024, insurance prices for people living in areas like the Palisades experienced either a dramatic increase in insurance prices, or a complete loss of insurance for their homes. In the article, “They lost their home insurance policies. Then came the L.A. fires” on the Los Angeles Times, Farmers Insurance prices skyrocketed from $4,500 up to $18,000, a price homeowners could not afford.
Not only were the prices outrageous, but many insurance companies decided to suddenly drop clients, leaving them with no insurance.
It is understandable for insurance companies to raise the rates and prices of their services in these high-risk areas, but if they had already made commitments to clients, not withholding those commitments raises a huge issue.
“I feel that if the insurance companies had committed to provide coverage to a homeowner in the Palisades area, they should uphold the obligation for the existing coverage,” Cleveland said. “However, since these fires have devastated so many homes in that area, if the insurance companies decide that moving forward, insuring properties in those high-risk areas will come at a higher cost, then as a business they have every right to decline to provide service, as long as it is not based on any discriminatory factor and is based on high risk and business viability.”
Before deciding to cut clients’ insurance coverage completely, companies should have looked at a way to compromise with clients.
Once the fires can be contained and ultimately extinguished, insurance policies will rise throughout California. According to the article, “New insurance rules mean homeowners throughout California likely to pay more after fires,” on CNN, a rule was changed to allow insurers to raise premiums throughout California, even on people that are residing in areas with low or no risk of wildfires.
How Will Homes be Rebuilt to Withstand Future Disasters?
Ideally, homes would be built in areas that are at lower risk of fire danger. These areas do not include places like the Palisades.
This is unfortunate considering that is where most homes were destroyed and where people still own the property they wish to rebuild on. Since these areas can not be avoided when it comes to the rebuilding process, there are other steps contractors can take to eliminate the risk of another disaster.
In an article on NBC News, “California leaders promise a quick rebuild, but that may put homes at risk of fire again,” one way to reduce fire danger is by incorporating a way to increase the space between houses. This proposal was brought up to try to reduce the ability of embers to be able to travel between buildings and yards.
Another alternative solution is to reduce the number of palm trees planted in residential neighborhoods, seeing as they ignited like candles as the embers hit.
The planting of more native plants such as succulents that absorb more water, and are a denser plant species, will aid in the reduction of fire dangers.