Letters to the Editor: Why can’t I get my concrete fire-resistant home insured?
2 months ago

Letters to the Editor: Why can’t I get my concrete fire-resistant home insured?

LA Times  

To the editor: So, David Steiner’s concrete home is the sole survivor in a destroyed Malibu neighborhood. True, but they did not cancel our neighbor’s late-1950s wood-frame home in the same zone. We hear that insurers in California are mandated to consider a home’s fire-resistant elements. Local and state ordinances can be the start — that would be the best way if politics didn’t keep everything tied up in court until it was too late and all the tinder was in place for the next fire.

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History of this topic

The Los Angeles Fires Will Put California’s New Insurance Rules to the Test
55 years, 2 months ago

The Los Angeles Fires Will Put California’s New Insurance Rules to the Test

Wired  

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Over the past five years, California has become a poster child for what climate-fueled weather disasters can do to a state’s home insurance market. “With input from thousands of residents throughout California, this reform balances protecting consumers with the need to strengthen our market against climate …

If you live in a fire-prone part of California, this road map can help you save on insurance
3 years, 1 month ago

If you live in a fire-prone part of California, this road map can help you save on insurance

LA Times  

With the fire season growing longer and wildfires increasing in intensity, Californians living in fire-prone areas are having a harder time finding affordable insurance for their homes — if they can find coverage at all. For more detailed suggestions, consult Cal Fire’s “Hardening Your Home” site, its low-cost retrofit list and the University of California’s preparing your home webpage. The …

Opinion: Wildfires are increasingly destructive. We need to reevaluate how and where we build our homes
4 years, 5 months ago

Opinion: Wildfires are increasingly destructive. We need to reevaluate how and where we build our homes

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Alice Hill is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations and previously served as senior director for resilience policy in the Obama White House. In fact, a recent analysis of some areas that burned in Australia earlier this year revealed that “once a building catches fire, regardless of …

Parts of California are too wildfire-prone to insure
5 years, 7 months ago

Parts of California are too wildfire-prone to insure

Salon  

California is facing yet another real estate-related crisis, but we’re not talking about its sky-high home prices. Last winter when we wrote about home insurance rates possibly going up in the wake of California’s massive, deadly fires, the insurance industry representatives we interviewed were skeptical. But now, the data is in and it’s really happening: Insurance companies aren’t renewing policies …

Insurance claims at $9 billion from California fires
6 years, 3 months ago

Insurance claims at $9 billion from California fires

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Insurance claims from last month’s California wildfires already are at $9 billion and expected to increase, the state’s insurance commissioner announced Wednesday. About $7 billion in claims are from the Camp Fire that destroyed the Northern California city of Paradise and killed at least 86 people, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in at least a century. …

Official: California must mull home ban in fire-prone areas
6 years, 3 months ago

Official: California must mull home ban in fire-prone areas

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s increasingly deadly and destructive wildfires have become so unpredictable that government officials should consider banning home construction in vulnerable areas, the state’s top firefighter says. Communities in fire zones need to harden key buildings with fireproof construction similar to the way cities prepare for earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes, and should prepare commercial or public buildings to …

Column: As California burns, here’s what you need to know about fire insurance
7 years, 5 months ago

Column: As California burns, here’s what you need to know about fire insurance

LA Times  

Neighbors console each other in front of a home that burned in Anaheim Hills. “All those commercials about insurance companies offering peace of mind when things like this happen — those are just ads,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a San Francisco-based advocacy group. Homeowners in high-risk areas who can’t find coverage in the open market may …

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