California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, according to the website Ricardolara.com (paid for by Ricardo Lara for Lieutenant Governor 2026), “used his authority to protect more than 2 million policyholders from non-renewal when insurers tried to flee the marketplace following unprecedented wildfire disasters. He created the nation’s first Climate and Sustainability Branch within the Department of Insurance, and also sponsored legislation to allow wildfire survivors to better access their benefits.”
So far we have located one person who has been able to keep her single homeowners policy—and she lives in Yorba Linda. Almost all the insurance companies who had been issuing homeowner policies under a free-market system fled the state of California and stopped writing policies there. Farmers Insurance is the only company that has remained, Southern California insurance agents Richard Granados and Danielle Self said. Many people are considering selling their homes, Self said, because they cannot afford the skyrocketing insurance costs of having to have a California Fair Plan policy plus a secondary homeowners policy. Insurance companies who were used to submitting 6.9% annual rate increases (just under the 7% maximum allowable) were suddenly forbidden to raise their rates at all. Self said they fled the state, because they are in business to be profitable—and they have not come back. To make up what they have lost in rate increases now, they could request 6.9% increases times the number of years they were out of the California market—and it isn’t happening.
Again quoting his website, Ricardo Lara “continues to lead efforts to protect Californians from the impacts of climate change — including wildfires, floods and heatwaves — by pushing the insurance industry to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.” He seems to have pushed them right out of the state by all local accounts.
Granados himself went through the experience of a housefire, having to live in a motel while his home was rebuilt with all the attendant inconvenience. “We need more carriers,” he said—”admitted or non-admitted.” According to Julia van Buren at insurancejournal.com. “The non-admitted market is not subject to state rate and form regulation. Since there is no rate regulation, these non-admitted carriers can collect the appropriate premium for the risk. Additionally, because there is no form regulation, the non-admitted carrier can more accurately underwrite the risk by providing policy wording to match what is being insured.” Granados says the Insurance Commissioner needs to be more proactive about drawing insurers back into the California market. “Offer them tax incentives for a limited time,” he suggested.
Several Insurance town halls have been sponsored by local legislators because their constituents are frustrated and want some answers. On November 12, State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa-Bogh sponsored a townhall. Her frustration was evident at the end with the lack of real solutions and answers to the questions submitted by participants. One caller was frustrated that 80% of wildfires were on federal land and asked why his insurance rates should go up because of that. If it’s state or federal land, don’t they have some responsibility for land management that would prevent or mitigate fire hazards? he asked. Caller Rex Frazier said some species of trees need fire as part of their life cycle, but 100 years ago the conservationist mindset began an interruption of the natural cycle. The Forest Service is now rethinking fires, he said.
Our local Forest Service is credited with having a strong impact on saving structures during the Line Fire. At several local MAC meetings, Battalion Chief Brian Grant with the Mountain Top Ranger District explained the importance of the pile burning project he has overseen for the past ten years. According to a report written by Gus Bahena, Public Affairs Specialist for San Bernardino National Forest, in December 2023, a contractor was hired to do mechanical thinning of vegetation, cutting branches and logs and combining them with “bark, chunks, stumps and brush to make piles about ten feet in diameter and three to four feet high”. He described the pile burn that took place on a foggy, drizzly day with chilly temperatures on December 19, 2023: Forty-three personnel were on hand to ignite the piles on that foggy December day and closely monitor the burn. (There is something good to be said for those frustrating foggy days!) Pile burn work like that was credited again and again at MAC meetings by the other firefighters who benefited from the Forest Service’s work as they battled the Line Fire. Some of the fuels reduction work “goes well into the forest for, in some areas, over a mile deep from the backside of the community,” Grant explained in the 2023 report.
Implementing Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) is another method of fire suppression or prevention. The word around town is that Edison has been vigorously alerting mountain residents about imminent shutoffs (and so far not implementing them). “Complex decision-making by utility companies, particularly in regions prone to wildfires, such as the western United States is required,” according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association website. “The decision to shut off power relies heavily on weather forecasts indicating high winds and dry conditions, which significantly elevate fire risk.”
The Fire Chiefs Association further notes “Despite these risks, utilities must weigh the potential consequences of power outages, such as impacts on public health, essential services like water supply and medical devices, and overall community resilience.” (e.g. a Firewise Community). “Balancing these considerations involves integrating technologies to enhance awareness. This is done through early detection of fire risks, maintaining infrastructure, and exploring options like undergrounding power lines where feasible. Ultimately, the challenge lies in finding a delicate balance between mitigating fire hazards and maintaining essential services crucial to public well-being.” (Underground power lines have reportedly been a non-starter in the mountain environment, according to Southern California Edison.)
SCE is making enormous efforts to ensure its responsiveness to fire at the source if powerlines are involved, as reported at the recent Crest Forest and Lake Arrowhead MAC meetings. New technologies are being employed to harden the grid such as Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters, covered conductor wiring, bolstering situational awareness through cameras, and remote control shutoff capabilities.
In a YouTube post entitled “Lights Out! Mass Power Outages Coming to CA,” Carl DeMaio, newly elected Assemblyman from north and east San Diego’s 75th District, addressed concerns about how and where we source energy. DeMaio’s district has a similar environment to our local mountains, a wildland/urban interface with high fuel loads. As the South Coast Air Quality Management District has made us aware, they propose to force us toward electric furnaces and water heaters (and eventually cooking appliances). These will demand more electricity. In recent years California has not been able to provide enough electricity and has been importing it from neighboring states (who generate “dirty energy”). Additionally, more transmission lines to import power over long distances, refusing to construct power stations within the borders of California, and proposing to shut down existing power plants are under consideration. The imported power loses strength in the long-distance transmission to bring it to the state, and more power lines are being built to import more electricity, DeMaio stated. He attributes the three main reasons for the growth in severity of fires in California (with approximately the same total number of fires) to be: not allowing for defensible space, a failure by the State of California regarding habitat risk management, and not managing our forests properly (i.e. thinning of trees, etc.). Wind and solar power generation in the deserts is distributed via high voltage power lines in the state’s most fire-prone areas, according to Ron Nearing of the Pine Valley Planning Board, who also pointed to an unacceptable buildup of fuel being allowed to accumulate on public lands.
Building a Firewise Community is one tool at our disposal. As described by Laura Dyberg of Mountain Rim Firesafe Council: “Firewise designation is currently the only tool MRFSC has to help property owners with insurance issues. CA Department of Insurance Commissioner Lara established in REG-2020-00015, that insurance companies must recognize Firewise when rating a property for insurance and renewal. This has resulted in property owners receiving discounts on their premiums (5 to 15%). A Firewise community can be as few as eight (8) homes or as many as 2,500 homes, in a defined boundary. HOAs are perfect for establishing Firewise designation, but it isn’t required. MRFSC has resources to assist a homeowner group or neighborhood or even a block to acquire Firewise designation at no charge to the group.”
She adds: “If you are interested in getting more info or setting up a meeting for your group, please email us at info@firesafenow.org and someone will contact you directly.”
