by WorldTribune Staff, January 12, 2025 Real World News
New revelations have emerged daily of the roles played by California state and local government in a historic wildfire disaster in Los Angeles. Meanwhile a report pointed to homeowners nationwide sharing the insurance burden despite living far from impacted wildfire and hurricane zones.
One day before devastating fires broke out across the Los Angeles area, Democrat Mayor Karen Bass demanded the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) cut $49 million from its budget, according to a leaked memo.
The $49 million would have been on top of $17.6 million in cuts to the LAFD in Bass’s last budget.
“The extra cuts, requested just days before fires broke out and devastated swathes of Los Angeles, would have shut down 16 fire stations and crippled the department’s ability to respond to emergencies,” The Daily Mail cited sources as saying in a report on Friday.
The memo is dated Jan. 6. The Palisades fire started on Jan. 7.
Meanwhile, the 2024-25 California state budget, signed into law in June 2024 by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, cut $101 million in funding for wildfire and forest management, according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Sources told the Daily Mail the memo was sent from LAFD “top brass” at City Hall to division chiefs and captains after a meeting the previous Friday between Chief Kristin Crowley and Bass.
“The LAFD is still going through a FY [financial year] 2024/2025 $48.8 million budget reduction exercise with the CAO [City Attorney’s Office],” the memo said. “The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations (not resources, fire stations); this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District. The details of this plan have not yet been developed. This is a worst-case scenario and is NOT happening yet.”
Bass, who was on a trip to Ghana to attend the West African country’s presidential inauguration on Tuesday has been heavily criticized for the trip as a warning was sent out about “critical” weather conditions in Los Angeles days prior to her departure.
A 25-year veteran of the LAFD told DailyMail.com: “They did not want this out. It’s an internal memo not to be distributed. They’re trying to allocate more money for the homeless, and they need to start taking from everybody. But we already exhausted our budget. It’s already tapped. That’s why they cut the fire academy in half, so they could save more money. That’s why we’re not testing if hydrants work any more. We’re doing everything we can to save money.”
The firefighter continued: “We have fire engines we can’t get parts for. When one breaks down we strip it of parts to put on other fire engines because we can’t buy any more parts. If you shut down 16 stations, that’s about 750 personnel. Then they expect us to take the same call volume. And yesterday we did 3,800 calls, almost twice of what our daily call volume usually is. We’re already shy 200 paramedics, and we’re on the verge of another 200 quitting because we can’t do this any more. If we don’t work overtime, they suspend and threaten to terminate us. It’s untenable.”
As for cuts in the state budget, the California Analyst’s Office, which is overseen by the state legislature’s Legislative Budget Committee, said cuts included a reduction of $5 million in spending on CAL FIRE fuel reduction teams, including funds used to pay for vegetation management work by the California National Guard.
An additional $4 million was removed from a forest legacy program aimed at encouraging good management practices from landowners. Another $28 million was slashed from funds provided to multiple state conservancies to increase wildfire resilience.
Another $8 million was taken from monitoring and research spending, which had largely been given to CAL FIRE and California universities, while $3 million was removed from funding for an interagency forest data hub. A home hardening pilot program designed to make homes more resilient to wildfires had its funding cut by $12 million.
President-elect Donald Trump wrote in a social media post: “One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”
Critics are also saying that Democrat-run California ignored warning signs from insurance agencies that pointed to a breakout in wildfires.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Curt wrote in a LinkedIn post: “In 2024, State Farm filed to ‘not renew’ 1,626 home insurance policies out of the 2,342 policies it had in ZIP 90272. That’s nonrenewal of 69.4% of the policies that State Farm had in that Pacific Palisades ZIP code.
“This isn’t proprietary knowledge. It was reported in the news based upon a public filing with the State of California. And yet it appears state and local officials may not have taken any cues from that decision to take a look at vegetation mitigation and other fire safety preparations that prompted an insurance company to stop renewing the majority of policies in that area.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Los Angeles wildfires are likely to raise home insurance rates even for people who live thousands of miles away.
The wildfires are estimated to have caused insured losses of as much as $20 billion or more. Hurricanes Milton and Helene inflicted insured losses approaching $50 billion.
“Insurers have tended to raise rates on homeowners in regions where disasters strike. But researchers say the scale of losses leads companies to tap faraway customers to recoup their money,” the report said.
A Harvard Business School study found that disasters in some parts of the United States affect insurance rates in other parts, as insurers bump up premiums for homeowners in other areas to help cover big losses.
“It’s spread all over the country, and it spreads in a disproportionate way, where some people are bearing an overwhelmingly higher cost,” said Ishita Sen, a co-author of the study and a Harvard finance professor.
More-frequent disasters make it more likely that insurers have to tap their reinsurance, the coverage that insurance companies themselves take out in the event that they have to pay out lots of expensive claims.
“To the extent the reinsurance markets react to these losses and increase prices, those costs may be passed on to the policyholders,” said Sridhar Manyem, a senior director at rating agency AM Best.
The Los Angeles wildfires might also lead insurers to reassess the wildfire risk in other areas they cover, Manyem added.
That could lead to an extra burden for homeowners like Jackie Lenahan, who told the Journal the premium for the insurance on her manufactured home in Grants Pass, Oregon was already up to about $1,300 last year, from $882 in 2022. When she called her insurance company to ask about the increase, she was told it was due to recent wildfires in the state.
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Wildfire of a scandal, and why are home insurance rates spiking far from disaster zones? added by Editor Two on January 12, 2025
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