As much as I hate to agree, I do agree with 100%. I do think this will be the collapse of Homeowners Insurance industry. I expect an uptick in paid off Mortgages with pre 2015 home buyers, that’ll correspond with risking it and having no homeowners. It’s no different than SoCal folks that’s did not. Lots of talk the next few years with Big Bold words about Insurers in California but slow progress.
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@Strikeamatch not sure the onus is on the government as much as the private citizen. Fuels reduction/treatments on government land can only go so far especially when we talk about chaparral.
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Lots of discussion and speculation here, but the fallout began over the past several year. I as many have experienced it already. Nothing new, but with the current situation it’s going to get dramatically worse. I as several have had homeowners policies cancelled and had the daunting task of finding new coverage. I know several who couldn’t afford new coverage due to the outrageous costs. It’s going to affect eveyone, not just those in the urban interface. It already has. The list of the companies no longer writing policies in Ca is growing by leaps and bounds. Many, especially those in the WUI are in for a huge surprise very soon. I don’t have the answers, but the ramifications are very clear.
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Wondering out loud here. Will FEMA declare some areas as “un-buildable” as they have done in Hurricane prone areas and flood planes? Or if they are buildable do they put regulations in place as to separation between buildings, mandatory maintenance, specific landscape rules, access and egress, etc., etc, etc,
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I wonder how much this will help
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already on the books for new construction in the WUI, California Building Code Chapter 7A address all this and has for years, it will probably get more strict.
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Add up all the “new improvements “, governmental permits and fees, no insurance and probably no lender willing to loan on a home with no insurance. I think SoCal’s problems are just getting started.
Only the rich and/or connected will be able to remain there.
Insult to injury.
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I agree completely. It is a multifaceted issue with endless stakeholders. Preparedness and risk reduction is everyone’s responsibility. I do believe however that certain entities stall and delay the process under the guise of “conservation” and other sometimes misguided priorities.
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Its crazy, I have heard some crazy costs to build a new or replacement home in the bay area. Figures like 700-1000 dollars per square foot. That does not include the land.
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California coastal commission will slow the whole thing
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If you want to slow things down more in government, creating more red tape, just have the politicians and government create a new regulatory body based on speeding things up!
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Interesting topic. I’m surprised no one has brought up that 95% of Southern California’s seasonal wildland firefighting force has been laid off. It snows in a lot of this country, and a lot of this country has firefighting “seasons.” I think it’s apparent that the chance of wildfire is year round in Southern California, and we need a wildland firefighting workforce available year round.
I worked for just under 20 years in Southern California for the US Forest Service on a couple hotshot crews and type 3’s. I now work for a large fire department in Southern California. We have type 3’s, we can fight wildland fire. However, it is not our specialty. If you don’t come from a wildland background before coming to my fire department, there isn’t enough opportunity for our firefighters to learn it well. The Forest Service, all though not paid as firefighters (different discussion), are either on wildfires, training for it, or prepping/burning fuels projects. This is 95% of their job day-to-day. Yes overhead is still around this time of year, but most of the workforce has been laid off.
We are all here because we care. I think we can all agree that sometimes Mother Nature is going to do what she wants to do, and there is nothing you can do about it. Pointing a finger at an individual for blame does nothing for us moving forward. However, we also can learn from the past. Before the Cedar/Paradise fire of 2003, 80% of San Diego County was covered by volunteer departments. I was apart of one of them and got my start in fire there. Now Calfire has taken them all over, and provided a professional full-time workforce. As much fun as it was to get my start as a volunteer, the communities we served are that much better off with a professional full-time workforce. There is going to be a lot of legislature that comes from the aftermath of this firestorm. Hopefully some good can come from it. Hopefully our representatives can understand that wildland firefighting is a specialty, and the workforce needed for such is year round.
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Have any of you by chance looked at the initial executive orders signed by Governor Newsom to begin to address the recovery efforts?
May address some of the concerns.
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Nope, you got a link?
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Yes. And from what i have heard him say directly & what has been written about in the planned executive actions - it all works to help re-build the problem - as fast as possible - like it was before the Fire. None of the planned actions are fixing the larger issues at hand. imo…
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This problem has the potential to repeat the Great Recession on 2008-2010. If people can’t get insurance, no mortgages will be written. If the Fair plan (75% reimbursement) is the fix, mortgages Insurance for those with insurance will Increase to cover the loss.
When houses won’t sell because their are no buyers(like 07-2010) prices will plummet. My house in 96 was $150k, In 06 it was $600k, in 08-09 it was Barley $200k. I was then upside down $200k due to my own refinance stupidity. I stuck it out. But most of my neighbors didn’t and they walked away from houses that $0.50 on the dollar equity from when they bought in 99-05 . This devaluation only prolonged the problem.
Then came the property taxes reassessment & the cuts of property taxes by 50% in some cases. It was these cuts to property taxes that led to the Bankruptcy of cities like San Bernardino & Stockton. Which led to long term(100yr) city fire dept folding, & bring rolled Into even larger depts.
The only Insurance companies that will remain will be those that can figure out how to Insure, protect, & pay out losses. While still turning a profit.
Finally, let’s talk about profit. MOST of us hare are PROFESSIONAL, PAID FF. Meaning we do it for $$, not as volunteers. The insurance companies are here to make a profit. I will bet $$ ALL OF US that have a 401k, 457, or similar retirement plan. Have money invested in an insurance company to grow our retirement nest eggs.
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Spot on, they have to make money lol. My gripe is the science or lack there of is in evaluating wildfire risk on properties but I dont think its gonna matter everyones rates are going up.
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I spend probably too much time on LinkedIn and the amount of start up/VC tech driven solutions are just insane in response to this incident. Nobody wants to talk about the real problem. You want to be a start up? Start a landscaping and home hardening company.
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Or a content creator/wannabe youtuber’s making their podcast seem like a fire intel site. Those things have been popping up like spotfires also…
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