Millions in Fire-Ravaged California Risk Losing Home Insurance
Stop-gap protection has expired for 347,000 people
Pasadena Fire Department firefighters defend a home during the Apple fire in Banning, Calif., on Aug. 1, 2020.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty ImagesA California moratorium guaranteeing insurance in wildfire-threatened areas lapsed Saturday, putting 347,000 homes in Pasadena and other Los Angeles foothills communities at the mercy of the market.
As many as 2.4 million homes are at risk of losing protection in 2021 as year-long grace periods expire – though new disasters may extend their shields. In all, 18 percent of the state’s households could effectively lose protection, the largest single group since the moratorium law took effect three years ago.
“We're going to pay the bill for climate change one way or the other and it's just a question of how we divvy up that cost,” said David Russell, co-director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance at California State University, Northridge. “What California politicians are trying to do is tinker with how we do that. They're buying time, hoping they get a break.”