California Wildfires News

Study Blames Climate Change for Summer Wildfire Rise in California

A study out this week shows that nearly all of the observed increase in summer wildfires in California over the past half-century is attributable to man-made climate change. An international team of scientists looked at data from record-breaking summer forest …

Insurer Group Reacts to California Department of Insurance Musing on Cat Modeling

Insurer groups may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with a hint of a possible change in a regulator’s attitude toward the use of catastrophe modeling in the California market for wildfire insurers. The California Department …

California Insurers’ Inability to Price Risk Is Causing Headaches

California regulations restrict insurers from using sophisticated computer models to consider the rapidly growing wildfire risks from climate change — and that limitation is a factor pushing US insurers out of the state. State Farm General Insurance Co. announced at …

Climate Change, Wildfire Risk and State Farm’s California Decision

Several reasons were given within State Farm’s announcement last week the carrier was no longer writing new personal or business property/casualty policies in California – including a challenging reinsurance market, increased risks and historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation. …

AccuWeather: Storms May Have Delayed California’s Wildfire Season

The massive rainfall and snow California received this winter will likely delay the upcoming wildfire season for the state – though all that moisture is unlikely to curtail it much if at all, a wildfire report out today shows. The …

$1.5M for California Homeowners Overcharged Under Wildfire Risk Score

Kemper Independence Insurance Co. has issued more than $1.5 million in refunds to thousands of California homeowners after the California Department of Insurance found the carrier overcharged policyholders for wildfire risk. Kemper and its affiliate insurance company, Unitrin Auto and …

$930M to Curb Western U.S. Wildfires Crisis

The U.S. is directing $930 million toward reducing wildfire dangers in 10 western states by clearing trees and underbrush from national forests, the Biden administration announced Thursday, as officials struggle to contain destructive infernos that are being made worse by …

Viewpoint: California Regulatory System Hurting Independent Agents and Their Clients

Millions of California insurance consumers are being adversely affected and incurring higher costs of insurance due to the malfunctioning insurance regulatory system in California. Moreover, the broken regulatory environment is undermining, and in some cases, threatening to destroy, independent insurance …

California Commissioner Issues Moratorium on Homeowners Insurance Cancellations in L.A. and Kern Counties

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara ordered insurance companies to preserve residential insurance coverage following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Nov. 19 emergency declaration. The commissioner’s bulletin shields policyholders within the wildfire perimeter of the Route Fire and in adjacent ZIP codes from …

Moody’s: California Utilities Reduced Liability Following Catastrophic Wildfires

A new report shows California utilities have noticeably reduced their liability following catastrophic wildfires in the past that have been blamed on the utilities and have driven several massive lawsuits and financial challenges. The report out on Thursday from Moody’s …