Lauris Bye, a homebuilding industry veteran who moved to Southern California’s wildfire-prone hills decades ago, felt confident about the newly built house he was buying about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
It had safety features tucked into the construction -- from ember-proof vents to green buffers with sprinklers to fend off flames. But a few days before closing, he hit a snag. State Farm informed him it wouldn’t write an insurance policy for the $839,000 Toll Brothers home on a hillside in Santa Clarita
