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 …

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 …

Trump’s Hiring Freeze Throws Wildfire Fighters into Disarray

Federal firefighters have found their jobs on the chopping block as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders, with a hiring freeze simultaneously blocking reinforcements in the aftermath of the Los Angeles wildfires and ahead of the upcoming …

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 …

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 …

Southern California Edison Gear Ignited More Fires in 2024 Than Previous Year

Southern California Edison’s equipment ignited nearly 60% more fires in 2024 than in the previous year, mainly tiny ones that were quickly extinguished, as the utility battled to prevent catastrophe in the months leading up to the Los Angeles wildfires. …

Insurers Have Now Paid out $6.9B for LA Wildfires, Report Shows

Insurance companies have so far paid out more than $6.9 billion for losses from the biggest two of the Los Angeles-area wildfires that swept through the region and destroyed tens of thousands of homes last month. That’s according to the …