Randy and Miki Quinton held hands as they walked down a hill toward the remains of the neighborhood in Altadena, an unincorporated Los Angeles suburb where they had lived for more than 20 years. On Friday, the couple, who entered the barricaded area through an open alley with two friends, faced complete misery. The Eaton Fire destroyed hundreds of homes and cars in a middle-class neighborhood, leaving only ashes. – Soaked chimneys and burning gas lines. The Quintons’ home was evaporated along with all their belongings.
“After 24, 48 hours, it’s all over,” Randy Quinton told Grist.
The Quintons and thousands of other families are now facing a living nightmare as they begin to recover from the most devastating wildfire outbreak in modern U.S. history. Together, the Palisades and Eaton fires, which struck coastal areas about 30 miles apart, killed at least 24 people and destroyed well over 10,000 structures.
How victims rebuild their lives depends largely on California’s struggling home insurance market. Unlike many fire victims in other parts of the Los Angeles area, the Quintons and many of their neighbors were able to keep their insurance policies, even their businesses, in the lead up to the fire. dropped thousands other Customers who are prone to fire All over California and in other states across the country.
“We are blessed in that respect,” Quinton said.
This report may bode well for the recovery of the diverse neighborhood where so many people lived. A black family that has lived there for many years People who own real estate in Altadena From the era of the civil rights movement. But that stability may not last long, as California’s insurance market continues to shrink in the wake of the fires. Insurance losses of over $20 billionaccording to preliminary estimates. Insurers will almost certainly have to raise prices and cut high-risk customers to make up for the billions of dollars in payments on Los Angeles’ expensive homes. The recent availability of insurance may make it easier for displaced Altadena residents to return, but the areas they return to are likely to be far more affordable than they once were. . With a median home price of about $900,000 in the county, the future is uncertain for many longtime Angelenos.
Despite Altadena’s location within the wilderness-urban interface (an area where residential development crowds into fire-prone hillsides), Altadena’s affected neighborhoods are less likely to be affected than the state health commissioner announced last year. It is not included in the list of disaster-stricken areas. Average insurance premiums in nearby areas It was about $2,300 The annual amount is significantly lower than that of other fire-prone areas in the northern part of the state. less than 10% of people Some people in fire-hit areas are buying insurance through government-backed insurance companies as a last resort, but the number has been increasing in recent years.
“No it [insurance] We were lost and it was over,” said Kevin Devine, a security guard and lifelong Altadena resident who also lost his home in the fire. “We’ve been here this long and I think we can come back even stronger. We’re not going to let the fire stop us.”
Devine grew up in the house her mother bought nearly half a century ago. He returned to the neighborhood last week with his son and twin brother Keith, also a security guard, to examine the remains of the house. His sister also lives up the road and lost her home, but Kevin said the brothers will be able to stay with family in a nearby suburb while they wait for their home to be rebuilt.
Jake Bittle / Grist
The insurance situation is much different in the wealthy Pacific Palisades, where another major wildfire was still raging earlier this week. Even before the fires, most homeowners along the coast near the Palisades and Malibu were unable to secure traditional insurance and were forced to rely on California Fair Plan, the last state-backed insurer. Even that wasn’t enough to cover many homes. Although the FAIR plan only covers damages up to $3 million, many homes in the Pacific Palisades are worth much more than that. People in such families often Secure coverage through a so-called surplus line insurance company Insurance costs tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Altadena hasn’t experienced any problems like this yet, but it may not last long. California bans insurance companies from dropping off customers in fire areas for at least a yearHowever, as soon as that suspension period ends, the customer may be issued a non-renewal. In the meantime, insurance companies may stop writing new policies for people moving into the neighborhood. California also just finalized rules that will allow insurance companies to raise prices even more quickly. (Insurers argue these increases are necessary to account for climate change and inflation.)
The impact of losses in the affluent Palisades will be felt in more modest Altadena, as insurance companies pay out billions of dollars to insure expensive homes. The FAIR plan includes: A staggering $24 billion exposure Located in fire-affected areas, these insurance payments over the next few years will wipe out all existing reserves. Once the program runs out of funding, it would impose assessments on insurers based on their market share in the state, and insurers could pass those assessment costs on to customers, including insurers in less vulnerable areas.
All of this means that Altadena could soon experience both insurance price increases and coverage gaps that could increase pressure on homeowners to come back and depress home values. It means that there is.
“I don’t foresee a collapse in the insurance market,” said Nancy Watkins, principal accountant at leading risk analysis firm Milliman. But, she added, “I think prices could go down as insurance premiums go up and people’s underlying anxiety about living in California increases.”
There is one way to alleviate this price pressure. If Altadena rebuilds in a way that makes it more resistant to wildfires, uses fire-resistant housing materials in new construction and creates a buffer between the city and nearby fire-prone mountains, insurance companies say Under California law, they would be required to offer premium discounts to future residents. The Town of Paradise mandated such construction after the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed thousands of homes. Insurance companies finally Started offering insurance In the past few months, I’ve been back to paradise again.
It will be up to the Los Angeles County government, which oversees unincorporated Altadena, to determine the standards for rebuilding the town.
Altadena City Councilman Nick Arnzen, who lost his home in the fire, said he believes the county needs stricter standards for fire-resistant construction.
“The county has been working on that,” he told Grist. “Right now, it’s not enough. We’re going to work together as a town to make sure our town is safe.” But he also added that residents are keen to preserve the area’s architectural history, and are looking to rebuild. He said he hopes the county government will give residents flexibility when securing permits.
“I am confident that certain restrictions will be lifted and the process will become easier,” he said. Many of the older homes in the neighborhood destroyed by the fire would be too large to be rebuilt under current laws.
Arnzen said Altadena’s timing was bad because of its proximity to the fire-prone San Gabriel Mountains. The Town Council had just helped the county approve a long-term plan to gradually reduce housing density in the town’s most dangerous hillside areas. Scheduled to take effect this year, some of the damage caused by the fires may have been minimized.
“We were already working on it, but it was a year late,” he said.