California Wildfires News

California to Establish Home And Community Hardening Standards for Insurance

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Monday announced a new partnership between the California Department of Insurance and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Administration to establish statewide standards for home and community hardening aimed at reducing wildfire risk, protecting lives and property …

California Largest Utilities Will Spend Billions to Lower Wildfire Risk

California’s largest utilities said that they will spend about $13 billion to reduce the risk of wildfires following the worst fire season in modern state history and a string of blazes that were blamed on their equipment. Pacific Gas & …

Utility Paying $2B Settlement in Deadly 2018 California Fire

Southern California Edison will pay $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims from a deadly, destructive wildfire sparked by its equipment in 2018, the utility announced this week. Edison, which acknowledged no wrongdoing, said the agreement covers all claims in pending …

California Releases Final ZIPs for Non-Renewal Protection for 2020 Wildfires

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced that nearly 500 policyholders in six ZIP codes affected by the Mountain View Fire in Mono County were included in the mandatory one-year moratorium on insurance companies non-renewing or cancelling residential property insurance policies. …

Insurance Journal’s Most Popular Topics in 2020: West Region

The top stories for Insurance Journal’s Western region in 2020 were patently obvious to anyone who reads the news, namely coverage of COVID-19, and stories on the massive Western U.S. wildfires. However, other subjects made their way onto the list …

Insurance Journal’s Top 10 Most Read Stories of 2020: West Region

Wildfires were the big story in the Western U.S. in 2020. And a big underlying theme in those stories is what was being done to deal with them. One of the top stories in Insurance Journal’s Western region was when …

California Wildfire Survivors Urged to Call FEMA Helpline by Dec. 16

People with losses due to the California wildfires in Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, Napa, San Bernardino, San Diego, Shasta, Siskiyou and Sonoma counties have just five days left to register for federal aid. These counties are included in federal …

Analysts Say Cat Models Would Encourage Wildfire Mitigation Measures

Predictive modelers told California regulators on Thursday that the state’s antiquated rules for calculating wildfire risk when setting property insurance rates discourage innovative mitigation measures that could ultimately reduce losses. Nancy P. Watkins, a principal and consulting actuary for Milliman, …

2020 Western U.S. Wildfire Season Gave Us Gigafire, Several Massive Blazes

Want more proof that 2020 will go down as a year we should all try hard to forget about? With some 9 million acres burned in wildfires across Western U.S. this year, and the introduction of a new and terrifying …

PG&E Rate Hike in California Aimed at Easing Wildfire Risk

Pacific Gas & Electric’s household customers will be hit with an average rate increase of 8% to help the once-bankrupt utility pay for improvements designed to reduce the risks that its outdated equipment will ignite deadly wildfires in its Northern …