Gov. Gavin Newsom is firing back at President-elect Donald Trump for comments he made Wednesday about the response to deadly wildfires currently devastating Southern California.
Trump spoke with reporters after attending meetings Wednesday on Capitol Hill and accused Newsom of not "[doing] a good job," but noted they "worked well together" and would again when he takes office later this month.
"It's very sad because I've been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come - you'd have tremendous water up there, they send it out from the Pacific - because they're trying to protect a tiny little fish," Trump said. "For the sake of a smelt, they have no water… It's a mistake of the governor, and you could say, the administration."
Newsom's press office released a statement on social media following Trump's remarks saying there was a reason for not using the pumps.
"LADWP said that because of the high water demand, pump stations at lower elevations did not have enough pressure refill tanks at higher elevations, and the ongoing fire hampered the ability of crews to access the pumps," Newsom's press office wrote on X.
His office added that the city used water tenders to supply water, which is a common tactic in wildland firefighting.
Newsom's office also dismissed claims there is a water shortage.
"Broadly speaking, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump's claims that he would open some imaginary spigot," Newsom's office said.
The office posted a number of quotes from California officials saying water reliability and water supply are stable.
One of the comments said there was enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
Earlier in the afternoon, Trump accused Newsom of refusing to sign a water restoration declaration and criticized him for the low fire containment.
"Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Newsom's office said there was no such thing as a water restoration declaration.
They also noted that the supply and transport of water are unrelated.
"Trump is conflating two entirely unrelated things: the conveyance of water to Southern California and supply from local storage," according to the post. "And again, there is no such document as the water restoration declaration - this is pure fiction."
Still, Trump was not done with his criticism of Newsom.
In a scathing late-night post on Truth Social, Trump said the wildfires were "all his fault!!!"
Trump also called on Newsom to resign.
"One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground," Trump wrote. "It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!"
In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper earlier on Wednesday, Newsom was asked in general about Trump blaming him for the wildfire disaster.
"One can't even respond to it. I mean… you know, people are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn apart. Churches burned down," Newsom told Cooper. "This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say – I won‘t."
Newsom went on to praise President Biden, saying he "didn‘t play politics."
Biden visited a fire station Wednesday in Los Angeles alongside Newsom for a briefing from authorities on the raging wildfires.
The California wildfires, which ignited Tuesday afternoon, have already forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes. The Los Angeles area fires are threatening at least 28,000 structures. At least five people were killed.
The LA wildfires may cost up to $57 billion in damages and losses, Accuweather said in an early estimate.
Nick Ut/Getty Images
The Los Angeles wildfires could cause up to $57 billion in damage, Accuweather estimates.
The fires are destroying expensive real estate in Santa Monica, Malibu, and other neighborhoods.
Insurance providers like State Farm pulled new coverage before the fire due to catastrophe risks.
The Los Angeles wildfires could cost between $52 billion and $57 billion in damages and economic losses, according to a preliminary estimate from weather forecasting service Accuweather.
The wildfires tearing through Santa Monica and Malibu, among other areas, are destroying some of the country's most expensive real estate, where median home values exceed $2 million, Accuweather said in a release on Wednesday. Wildfires in the Los Angeles Pacific Palisades neighborhood have destroyed the homes of celebrities including Paris Hilton and have evacuated actors Mark Hamill and James Woods.
The cost estimates include damages to homes and businesses, as well as negative impacts on tourism and health from smoke inhalation, Accuweather said. Property that has not been destroyed by the fire may also have smoke or water damage.
The company said that the estimate is early and may change as some areas have not reported damages and injuries.
"This is likely to end up being one of the most expensive wildfires in modern California history and it will also be one of the most damaging in terms of the numbers of structures that have been destroyed,"Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather's chief meteorologist, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the company declined further comment.
The last major disaster was the Camp Fire, which destroyed Paradise, Califronia in 2018. German insurance company Munich Re estimated it caused overall losses of $16.5 billion.
"These fires will likely be the costliest in history, not the deadliest, and that is the only silver lining right now," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA told LAList.
Five people have been reported dead and 100,000 were told to evacuate.
Health costs could stem from the inhalation of hazardous air from the burning of homes, vehicles, chemicals, and fuels.
Property insurance providers, such as State Farm, pulled new California homeowners' insurance services in 2023, citing risks from catastrophes. Last year, the company said it would end coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in the state for the same reason.
Five separate fires hit the city and its region in recent days. High winds have hampered emergency services' responses.
A contingency plan has been put in place by the NFL as it continues monitoring the wildfires in California ahead of the Los Angeles Rams-Minnesota Vikings wild-card matchup Monday.
The No. 4-seeded Rams are scheduled to host the No. 5 Vikings at SoFi Stadium, but as the wildfires rage in the area, there’s a strong chance the Inglewood venue won’t be used.
The NFL released a statement saying it plans on having the Rams-Vikings play as scheduled Monday night at SoFi Stadium. If the stadium can’t be used, the game will be moved to a different venue.
State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, will be the backup location for the wild-card game, if necessary.
"The NFL’s priority is the safety of the Los Angeles community," the league’s statement began. "We are grateful for the tireless efforts of the first responders. Our hearts are with Los Angeles and everyone affected by the fires.
"We will continue to closely monitor developments in the area and will remain in contact with public officials, both clubs and the NFLPA."
The league issued a statement earlier Wednesday, which noted it was monitoring the situation.
The Rams had a scheduled off day Wednesday, though the Los Angeles Chargers, who share SoFi Stadium and head to Houston for their own wild-card game Saturday, limited players’ time outside during practice due to poor air quality.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the air quality index in Inglewood hit 281, according to ESPN. Air is considered unhealthy at 150 or higher.
At least 70,000 people have been ordered to evacuate as three major fires burn from the Pacific coast to Pasadena. Officials say the number of evacuation orders continues to fluctuate as the fires rage.
The Rams made an announcement Wednesday that no players or staff members have been affected by the fires, but the team is monitoring the situation closely.
"Our hearts are with those affected by the Eaton Fire in the Altadena/Pasadena area and the first responders protecting our community. Be safe," the Rams said.
Rams star receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp were among many who posted on X to show support for the community.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the fires," Kupp said. "Thank you to the firefighters, first responders, and everyone else doing their best in unfathomable circumstances."
Nacua added, "Thank you to all of the first responders! God bless the families impacted!"
Photos offer a glimpse at the scale of destruction that occurred in just a day and a half.
The situation is still ongoing and dangerous, with evacuation orders in many areas.
The Palisades and Eaton fires are ripping through parts of Los Angeles and causing mass destruction.
Firefighters are still struggling to contain the blazes, which grew rapidly and have continued for more than 24 hours.
The fires have destroyed at least 1,000 homes. Five people are reported dead. These counts are preliminary, as the situation is still dynamic.
It's difficult to grasp the scale of these fires, but emerging photos paint a grim picture.
The massive Palisades and Eaton fires ripping through Los Angeles show how quickly brush fires can escalate under dry, windy conditions.
A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County.
Josh Edelson/AFP
More than 70,000 people were under evacuation orders on Wednesday afternoon. Officials have warned that people in many other surrounding regions should prepare to leave their homes at a moment's notice.
Pat Durland, a wildfire-mitigation specialist and instructor for the National Fire Protection Association with 30 years of federal wildfire management experience, told Business Insider that if he lived in the area, he would leave before evacuation orders even hit his home.
"I would have left and gone to the beach or gotten a hotel," he said.
A giant smoke plume was rising over Santa Monica within an hour of the Palisades Fire igniting Tuesday morning.
Smoke from the Palisades Fire rises above Santa Monica.
ALERTCalifornia | UC San Diego
UC San Diego's ALERTCalifornia camera network captured it from the other side of Santa Monica. At that time the fire covered about 200 acres.
So many people had to evacuate that Palisades Drive was gridlocked.
Residents evacuate on foot from the Palisades Fire on Tuesday.
Qian Weizhong/VCG/Getty Images
Many people abandoned their cars and fled on foot.
Since then, the Palisades Fire has burned through more than 15,800 acres. This was the area with evacuation zones early Wednesday afternoon.
The area of the Palisades Fire with evacuation zones as of 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, from the California state fire agency, CalFire.
CalFire
That's where the acreage stood at 2:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday. Throughout the morning it was increasing hour by hour.
The most up-to-date evacuation orders and warnings are available through CalFire.
Photos are emerging from areas where the Palisades Fire has burned its way through.
A neighborhood ravaged by the Palisades Fire.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
The Eaton Fire in nearby Pasadena also rapidly ballooned overnight and Wednesday morning.
Megan Mantia, left, and her boyfriend Thomas, return to Mantia's fire-damaged home after the Eaton Fire burned it down.
AP Photo/Ethan Swope
The Eaton Fire covered 10,600 acres as of 1 p.m. PT on Wednesday.
Images from that area show a similar situation to Pacific Palisades: frantic evacuations and destroyed homes.
A walker lies on the ground after the Eaton Fire forced evacuations in Altadena, California.
David Swanson/REUTERS
The smoke from the fires filled the Los Angeles area, darkening the skies and causing unhealthy air quality.
Multiple fires covered the Los Angeles skyline with smoke.
Carlin Stiehl/REUTERS
A powerful windstorm spread the flames quickly, sending embers flying and igniting new spots, even jumping across roads.
The wind whips embers as the Palisades Fire burns on the west side of Los Angeles.
Ringo Chiu/REUTERS
Hurricane-force winds peaked overnight and Wednesday morning, and firefighters were unable to contain the blazes.
"Despite the efforts we put in with well-trained firefighters and equipment and aircraft, the wind and the weather still are ruling these situations," Durland said of major, fast-moving fires like these.
Another ALERTCalifornia camera captured the rising smoke from a ridge on the other side of the fire about an hour after it started.
The view from Temescal Trailhead at 11:56 a.m. on Tuesday shows smoke crawling over the hillside.
ALERTCalifornia | UC San Diego
This was the view from the same trailhead Tuesday night. This camera has since gone offline.
The view from Temescal Trailhead at 10:36 p.m. Tuesday shows the Palisades fire spreading west.
ALERTCalifornia | UC San Diego
Bone-dry vegetation provided abundant fire fuel due to a phenomenon called weather whiplash.
A firefighting plane makes a drop on the Palisades fire.
Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
The last two winters in Southern California have been quite wet, even causing flooding. That led to an explosion of grasses and shrubs, nearly twice as much as a normal season, according to the UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.
However, this winter has been different. Months without precipitation have dried out all that vegetation, blanketing the LA hillsides with fire fuel.
Grasses and shrubs help spread the fire, but it's "human fuels" that ignite homes, Durland said.
A firefighter douses a hot spot near a home in the Pacific Palisades.
David Swanson/AFP/Getty Images
"It's bark mulch, it's ornamental grasses, it's structures that are readily flammable," Durland said.
"This is an urban fire. We're burning urban fuels," he added.
That means that cities and homeowners can do something about it. More fire-resistant landscaping and construction can help protect homes from future firestorms like this.
There are always houses that survive wildfires, Durland said, and everyone can learn from that.
The Palisades Fire approaches homes on Tuesday.
Ringo Chiu/REUTERS
It helps to build homes with ample space between them and maintain a perimeter of at least five feet that's totally free of dry or flammable vegetation or mulch.
Homeowners can also keep their roofs and gutters clear and remove anything flammable from underneath porches and decks.
The Palisades were full of multi-million-dollar homes, which means this could be the costliest fire in US history, Swain said.
The remains of a home's staircase in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Ethan Swope
According to a preliminary estimate from JP Morgan, insured losses alone could amount to $10 billion.
The Eaton fire, burning in Pasadena and Altadena, was at 0% containment as of Wednesday afternoon.
A satellite image taken by Maxar Technologies showed the Eaton fire burning through Altadena.
Fires in and around Los Angeles have destroyed over 1,000 structures, left at least two dead, and displaced tens of thousands of others. Business Insider spoke with 3 people impacted by the fires firsthand.
Apu Gomes/Getty Images
Multiple blazes raged out of control in Los Angeles and Southern California Wednesday.
Business Insider spoke with three residents about their experiences fleeing the scene.
They called it terrifying, devastating, and apocalyptic.
The fires storming through Los Angeles and Southern California have left over 1,000 structures burned, at least two people dead, and tens of thousands of others displaced as they heed mandatory evacuation orders.
Business Insider spoke with three people who encountered the devastating impacts of the blaze firsthand. Their words have been edited for length and clarity.
'I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go'
Alisa Wolfson, a journalist, lives in the Palisades with her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 10. They evacuated to a friend's home and then the Beverly Hilton before losing their home in the fire.
My husband and I both grew up in the Palisades and bought our home there in 2018. My mom's still there, too. We love our neighborhood, and there's a strong sense of community. There's a reason that it's impossible to buy in and that Bill Hader lives on our street. It was like a storybook — too good to be true.
I was sitting in my home office Tuesday looking out the window when a girlfriend called me to see if I had heard that there was a fire nearby. I looked up and saw a little thing of smoke, but I thought we'd be fine. Within 10 minutes, it grew beyond what I ever thought was possible. I went out to the street and could see that the nearby hillside was engulfed in flames. I called my husband at work and said, "You need to come home right now."
Very quickly, it turned into all of our neighbors on the street throwing things in their cars and driving off. It was terrifying. I grabbed our dog Gus and just as I was leaving, my neighbor across the street called and asked me to pick up her dog since she wasn't home. I went back into my house, got her key, and put her dog in the car.
Smoke descended upon the neighborhood.
Photo courtesy of Alisa Wolfson
A friend whose daughter goes to the same school as mine picked our girls up, and we met at her house, which was just outside the evacuation zone. We put all the dogs in the yard, and the girls played with their friends. I thought we'd just camp out for a few hours — but then things started to look terrible really quickly. Around 1 p.m., my husband borrowed our friend's e-bike and rode to our house to see if there was anything he could do and to grab a few things left behind. He saw tons of smoke, firemen, and the hillsides burning — it was really wild.
We stayed at our friend's house until they lost power, then checked into the Beverly Hilton. It was like all of West Los Angeles had descended upon the hotel — it took 40 minutes just to pull into the driveway.
We paid $560 for the night for a room with two beds, which doesn't seem outrageous to me. They've been wonderful here. They greeted everyone in line, handing out water bottles. Henry Winkler was checking in ahead of me, and Cisco Adler's here. It's like a real LA tale. My mom is staying in the room next door with her dog — the number of dogs in this hotel right now is insane.
The check-in line at the Beverly Hilton.
Photo courtesy of Alisa Wolfson
The front page of the LA Times featured a house on our street in flames. The images looked apocalyptic. Our daughters kept asking, "Is our house safe?" but we weren't sure.
This afternoon, a neighbor who rode his bike into the neighborhood confirmed it: We've lost our home. Our neighbors have been texting that they have too. I'm utterly devastated and in a state of shock, barely functional. I haven't been able to break the news to my daughters yet. I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go. Our entire town appears to be gone.
This isn't something that should be happening. People need to elect local officials who really care about the climate and do what's needed to prepare for or prevent events like this. Last night, my husband asked me, "Where do you think you want to spend the rest of your life?" We have family in Connecticut, and last night it crossed my mind — do we just bail and start fresh? I don't know. For now, we're just taking it hour by hour.
'It was like the apocalypse, in a way''
Katie Cassidy, an actor and close friend of Alisa Wolfson, lives three minutes away from Wolfson in the Palisades. On Tuesday afternoon, she and her significant other evacuated to her parents' home in another part of Los Angeles.
My significant other, who is Canadian, woke up around 10:15 a.m. and said, "Oh my gosh, this weather is so beautiful, and the wind is so nice," and I was like, "Oh no, wind is not good." I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I'm aware of fires and the Santa Ana winds, especially around this time of year.
I went outside and smelled smoke. My close friend Alisa lives up the street, so I called to check on her and her family. Moments later, firetruck after firetruck and helicopter after helicopter passed by. My gut knew that this was not good. I started to pack away our things and valuables.
We kept our eye on the situation. There were more helicopters and more smoke. The sky turned darker and red, and we started seeing ashes.
Around noon, my partner looked out the window and said, "Babe, there are people running down the streets with their suitcases and bags and kids and strollers." We threw everything in the car, brought our cats and dog, and left.
Luckily, my parents live in another part of Los Angeles, so we came here. We later saw on the news that the people we saw running down the street were people who'd abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard because they were stuck in traffic. It was really terrifying and devastating to see; it was like the apocalypse, in a way.
I wish I would've left earlier. I was trying to get a better gauge of what was going on and trying not to panic. People need to be aware and not be stubborn and stay in their homes thinking it'll never happen because it will; it's happened to me. I don't know if our house is still there, but if it isn't, it'll be the second home I've lived in that has burned to the ground in LA; my childhood home in Bell Canyon burned down in a fire some years after we sold it.
Even though my parents' place is safe at the moment, the winds can change. Our bags are packed, and we're ready to move with our fur babies when and if need be. At the end of the day, we're just grateful to be alive.
'There's only so much you can take'
Adam Wood, a 45-year-old film producer, director, and editor, lives in North Hollywood and helped his friend evacuate from Pasadena early Wednesday morning.
Everyone was aware there was a fire building in Altadena around late Tuesday afternoon, and we've had issues up there before. My friend has an urban farm up there that houses rabbits, pigs, and chickens. My thoughts and concerns were with him — if he had to get out, he'd need as much help as possible. I went over there in the early evening Tuesday to help.
The view from the house as Adam and his friend fled.
Photo courtesy of Adam Wood
At first, evacuators didn't think the fire would come down toward where we were, but at around 2:45 in the morning, we got the evacuation order through an alert on the phone. Then a fire official knocked on the door, and we had about half an hour to pack as much as we could, including a young pig, into the back of my friend's Tesla.
Thankfully, we got everyone out, and all the animals got out OK. My friend had already packed his documents and anything of physical value in his wife's SUV and his Tesla. The chickens were huddled together in one cage, and the rabbits were also hutched in one of the cars.
The pig was evacuated in the back of a Tesla.
Photo courtesy of Adam Wood
His wife and two kids were also there, and they all took a bunch of personal items, a suitcase each, and some computers. Of course, there's only so much you can take. The cars were jam-packed, but much of their personal property had to be left behind.
As we drove away, it was pretty hectic given that it was a rush and the whole neighborhood was also leaving at the same time. Thankfully it wasn't replicable to the scenes in the Palisades where people abandoned their cars. But the glow of the fires was visible on the horizon, and smoke filled the air.
The view of Pasadena and Altadena from 10 miles away.
Photo courtesy of Adam Wood
He lives in a very nice house, and God knows if that still exists.
Now, there is the Woodley fire, which is closer to my home, so we are keeping a watchful eye on my place and hoping we won't need to evacuate ourselves.
The following table shows the ZIP codes that were under evacuation orders or warnings as of Wednesday afternoon that had the highest rate of nonrenewals from State Farm last year.
Several other major insurers have dramatically restricted their coverage across California in recent years, citing surging costs from more frequent and intense disasters coupled with rising home repair costs and inflation.
Thousands of LA County homeowners who haven't been able to obtain private insurance have joined the ranks of those covered by the state's insurer of last resort — the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan. The FAIR plan is regulated by the state government and backed by a slew of private insurance companies. But its premiums tend to be much higher than typical private insurers and its coverage is often more restricted.
This table shows how FAIR insurance coverage has changed in the above ZIP codes between 2023 and 2024.
As private insurers have stepped back in recent years, the number of residential FAIR plan holders across the state jumped 123% between September 2020 and September 2024. The FAIR plan's dollar-value residential exposure surged from $271 billion in September 2023 to $431 billion in September 2024.
It's not clear how many homeowners impacted by the LA County fires are uninsured. Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to purchase insurance, and some require additional insurance for specific disasters, including fires.
Some major home insurers, including Farmer's — the second-largest in California — have recently begun to expand their offerings in California after the state announced new regulations requiring insurers to cover a certain percentage of homes vulnerable to fire in exchange for allowing them to use future risk modeling to calculate premiums.
In 2023, California had the fourth-highest home insurance nonrenewal rate among states, according to a recently released Senate Budget Committee report. Six of the top 10 counties in the country with the highest rates of nonrenewals by large home insurers in 2023 were in California, the report found.
But rising home insurance costs and rates of dropped policies are nationwide problems. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently reported that average home insurance premiums spiked by 13%, adjusted for inflation, between 2020 and 2023. The share of home insurance policies from large insurers that weren't renewed increased last year in 46 states, the Senate report found. And more than 200 US counties saw their non-renewal rates spike threefold between 2018 and 2023.
Areas more vulnerable to disasters, including flooding, wildfires, and hurricanes, have seen the biggest spikes in premiums and dropped policies.
"Our number one priority right now is the safety of our customers, agents and employees impacted by the fires and assisting our customers in the midst of this tragedy," a representative for State Farm told BI.
A representative from the California FAIR Plan Association also told BI in a statement that the insurer is "prepared" to handle the wildfire impact, and "has payment mechanisms in place, including reinsurance, to ensure all covered claims are paid."
Representatives for Farmer's did not respond for comment.
Have you been dropped by your home insurance company or are you facing a steep premium increase? Email this reporter to share your story: [email protected].
There were at least nine different predictions you could place money on as of Wednesday afternoon that were related to the fire. The topic had its own trending module on the site.
One question asked: "Will the Palisades fire be contained by Friday?" Only 2% of bets said yes. (California officials said Wednesday morning that the fires raging through California are "zero percent" contained. Two people have been reported dead in the wake of the disaster.)
There's a 52% chance the Palisades fires are at least 50% contained by Sunday. pic.twitter.com/1lxml2hW4K
Each wager has its own page on the site — and on those pages with bets related to the fire was a disclaimer from Polymarket.
The disclaimer reads:
Note on Palisades Wildfire Markets: The promise of prediction markets is to harness the wisdom of the crowd to create accurate, unbiased forecasts for the most important events impacting society. The devastating Pacific Palisades fire is one such event, for which Polymarket can yield invaluable real-time answers to those directly impacted in ways traditional media cannot.Note: There are no fees on this market.
On its site, Polymarket says that users can submit suggestions for markets, but a new prediction market, like the ones about the fire, can only be created by Polymarket.
A spokesperson for Polymarket told Business Insider: "Polymarket charges no fees — and generates no revenue — from these markets and provides them as a service to those looking for unbiased and up-to-date information during fast-moving events."
Other wagers available as of Wednesday:
"Palisades fire burns 10,000 acres by Friday?" (Bettors said this was 99% "yes.")
"Will Palisades fire spread to Santa Monica by Sunday?" (Bettors gave this a 14% chance.)
So far, it appears the markets have drawn only small bets, with one question drawing a little more than $8,000 and another drawing more than $30,000, according to tallies on the site.
In addition to politics and sports, Polymarket offers bets on news and pop culture topics like Oscar nominations or the odds of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce getting engaged this year.
Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard will reportedly take a step back from the team to be with his family as it deals with the wildfires raging in the area.
Several wildfires have burned across Southern California since Tuesday afternoon.
Officials in Los Angeles said the Pacific Palisades fire has become the most destructive in the city’s history.
"He is going to tend to family in the LA area who were forced to evacuate due to the wildfires that are going on over there," NBA insider Chris Haynes said in a video posted to X Wednesday.
Leonard just made his season debut Saturday night, when the Clippers defeated the Atlanta Hawks. He had been out nine months due to what the team described as right knee injury recovery. He hadn’t played since April 26, a playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Leonard is from Los Angeles and went to King High School in Riverside.
Multiple people have died and more than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed. Thousands more have fled their homes to seek shelter as the fires have gotten out of control, fueled by winds that have topped 60-70 mph.
"This morning, we woke up to a dark cloud over all of Los Angeles. But it is darkest for those who are most intimately impacted by these fires. It has been an immensely painful 24 hours," LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said earlier Wednesday.
An NHL game between the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames has been postponed. The NFL is keeping an eye on the conditions ahead of Monday’s playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings.
That's because some insurance companies have been cutting back on their business in California in recent years as wildfires in the state have worsened.
State Farm, for instance, said in 2023 that it would no longer accept new homeowners' insurance applications in California. Then, last year, the company said it would end coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in the state. Both announcements cited risks from catastrophes as one of the reasons for the decisions.
Homes in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, one of the areas hardest hit by the fires so far, were among those affected when State Farm canceled the policies last year, the Los Angeles Times reported in April. State Farm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Other home insurers have dropped coverage in the state, even in areas where the wildfire risk is low, NBC Bay Area reported in September.
"When insurance companies face higher losses or payouts, they typically respond in two ways: raise premium prices and stop renewing policies or writing new policies," Dave Jones, the director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Law said in a September Q&A posted to the university's website. "California insurers are doing both."
Between 2011 and 2018, Jones was also California's insurance commissioner.
A new rule, set to take effect about a month into 2025, will require home insurers to offer coverage in areas at high risk of fire, the Associated Press reported in December. Ricardo Lara, California's insurance commissioner, announced the rule just days before the Los Angeles fires broke out.
At a press conference on Wednesday, one reporter asked Lindsey Horvath, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whether the Los Angeles fires would affect insurance companies' operations in California.
"I believe it already has, and the conversation is ongoing," Horvath said.
Watch Duty, an app to track wildfires with live maps and alerts, has become the No. 1 free app in Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday morning. The fire-tracking app surpassed the ChatGPT app for the No. 1 spot as devastating fires continue to rage across Southern California. Watch Duty has been around since 2021 […]
Firefighters battle fires razing beachfront homes along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in the Palisades Fire.
MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images/MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Firestorms in Los Angeles have burned nearly 27,000 acres, destroying homes and killing five people.
One of the biggest blazes, the Palisades Fire, could be the costliest in US history.
The fires have spread so fast in part because of a windstorm and flood-drought whiplash.
All was well in Los Angeles at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Less than 24 hours later, 2,925 acres of the Pacific Palisades were ablaze in what is being called the worst wildfire in Southern California since 2011. It has grown by orders of magnitude since.
Several more blazes have ignited in the area, with one, the Eaton Fire, engulfing another 10,600 acres.
Firefighters had not contained the fires as of early Thursday morning, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN that five people were dead, and "likely more."
More than 1,000 structures have burned and the fires could get even worse.
The UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain called it an "urban firestorm" as he assessed live images of the developing Eaton Fire on Tuesday morning.
Perhaps the best historical comparison is the 1991 Tunnel Fire, which raged through more than 1,500 acres of Oakland, but it was smaller than either of the two giant blazes in Los Angeles. It killed 25 people and injured 150, and ranks as the third-deadliest and third-most-destructive fire in California history.
The true toll of this week's fires won't be clear until later.
Swain said that he and several colleagues have estimated that the Palisades Fire could be the costliest on record in the US because of the number of structures burning and the fact that those homes are some of the most expensive in the world.
"We are looking at what is, I think, likely to become the costliest wildfire disaster in California, if not national history, along with a number of other superlatives," Swain said.
A historic windstorm spread the fire fast
The homes at risk include some of the most expensive real-estate in the world.
AP Photo/Eugene Garcia
A powerful windstorm buffeted the flames throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, with gusts of wind reaching up to 90 miles an hour, according to the National Weather Service.
During a 2 ½ hour period overnight, the Palisades Fire's size more than doubled, per the fire service's reports.
The winds were so powerful on Tuesday evening that water- and retardant-dropping aircraft could not fly.
It's a phenomenon that scientists have warned about: a deadly combination of high winds and dry, open land — such as the brushland now being swept by flames in Los Angeles — amounting to fires that move faster than emergency responders can keep up with.
"It's certainly unusual how fast it's grown," Douglas Kelley, a researcher at the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told Business Insider. "It's definitely a lot faster than I guess a lot of people were expecting in the area at the time."
A study published in Science in October found that while only about 3% of US fires over a nearly two-decade period could be considered "fast fires," they caused disproportionate damage.
"The most destructive and deadly wildfires in US history were also fast," wrote the study's authors, led by University of Colorado Boulder's Jennifer Balch.
Between 2001 and 2020, fast fires accounted for 78% of fire-destroyed buildings and a full 61% of suppression costs — or $18.9 billion, the scientists wrote. And they are getting more frequent, the study said.
The windstorm was bad luck. But the other primary factor in the fires' rapid explosions — the fuel — is strongly linked to the climate crisis.
Weather whiplash made abundant fire fuel
The remains of a home's staircase in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Ethan Swope
Southern California has experienced heavy rainfall and flooding the past two winters — which is a huge part of the problem.
Abundant rainfall spurred an explosion of grasses and brush, the primary fire fuel in Southern California. Then, with very little rainfall in the past few months, all that vegetation was flash-dried.
Kelley said those dry conditions made the Palisades especially susceptible to a fast-spreading fire.
This is part of a growing phenomenon that Swain calls "hydroclimate whiplash," or weather whiplash. As global temperatures rise, many parts of the world, especially California, are seeing more violent swings between extreme wet and extreme dry conditions.
The same confluence of weather whiplash and extreme winds was behind the Camp Fire, Swain said. That November 2018 blaze in Paradise, California, was the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history, destroying 18,804 structures and killing 85 people.
"These fires are much worse than people think….just absolutely devastating Pacific Palisades & Malibu," he wrote. "I work about 6 miles from all this & currently headed in now.
"This picture is from a plane to show the sheer size of it all."
Daniel played in the NFL from 2010 to 2022 after a standout collegiate career at Missouri.
He was with the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Chargers before he stepped away from the game. He was mostly used as a viable backup but started five of his 74 appearances.
He had 1,746 passing yards and nine touchdown passes in his career.
He currently works for FOX Sports as an analyst on "The Facility."
Several fires broke out around the Los Angeles area between Tuesday and Wednesday. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes.
The first started near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of Los Angeles. The second occurred in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. The third, which began around 10:30 p.m. PT, occurred in the San Fernando Valley.
The mother of Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr evacuated from her home in the Los Angeles area as wildfires raged on Tuesday into Wednesday morning.
Kerr’s 90-year-old mother, Ann, left her Pacific Palisades home as evacuation orders were given. The coach talked about the harrowing situation unfolding after the team’s 114-98 loss to the Miami Heat.
"I want to send my thoughts and condolences to everybody in Los Angeles dealing with the fires," he said. "My mom lives in Pacific Palisades. She had to evacuate."
Everett Dayton, a member of the organization’s player development department, lost his family home in the area, Kerr said.
"Everything I’m seeing and reading is just terrifying what’s happening down there," Kerr said. "So just want to send thoughts to everyone who’s going through the devastation of the fire. Obviously the game is secondary to that and to many things in life. Perspective is important."
Ann Kerr was among the thousands who were forced to flee the area as three separate fires broke out across the Los Angeles area on Tuesday. The first started near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of Los Angeles. The second occurred in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. The third, which began around 10:30 p.m. PT, occurred in the San Fernando Valley.
On Monday, Los Angeles authorities warned of high winds that would plague the region. The winds helped fuel the fires on Tuesday as gusts topping 60 mph were seen in some places, increasing to 70 mph by early Wednesday.
A high-wind warning was in effect for the region through 6 p.m. PT, the weather service read.
Planes dropped water on huge flames whipping through canyons and mountain passes.
And it's showing little sign of slowing down, officials said. Dry conditions combined with high wind gusts of more than 90 miles per hour have helped fuel the multiple fires burning around the metropolitan area.
A total of five separate fires are now sweeping through parts of the region in and around Los Angeles after a new fire — called the Sunset Fire — broke out in the Hollywood Hills, near the iconic Hollywood sign, on Wednesday evening, forcing the LA fire chief to leave in the middle of a press conference. It has so far burned 10 acres as flames could be seen rising from the hills against the night sky.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a press conference Wednesday evening that residents may receive more evacuation orders as wind conditions continue to be "strong and erratic."
In an X post in the early hours of Thursday morning, Bass said firefighters would be working through the night battling blazes in Los Angeles for the second night in a row.
Los Angeles schools would be closed on Thursday, impacting more than half a million students, LA Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced Wednesday.
The longest-burning of the now five active fires in Los Angeles County, the Palisades Fire, has burned over 15,000 acres, official said.
The Eaton fire, impacting the Pasadena-Altadena region, has burned about 10,600 acres and continues to grow with zero percent containment, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a press conference. The Hurst fire, in the north of the region near San Fernando, covered over 700 acres.
The fourth fire, the Woodley fire in the Sepulveda Basin, has burned 30 acres. Chief of Los Angeles Fire Department Kristin Crowley said that fire was under control as of Wednesday evening.
Evacuation orders and warnings continue to be issued throughout Wednesday evening, including a notice for residents living near the Hollywood Hills.
Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said Wednesday afternoon that he hoped milder wind conditions overnight would allow for more aircraft and additional resources to be directed at the Eaton fire.
"That's what gives me confidence that we're going to get a handle on this fire," Augustin said.
People flee from the advancing Palisades Fire, by car and on foot.
AP Photo/Etienne Laurent
By Wednesday afternoon, over 100,000 people living near the Eaton fire received evacuation orders, a representative for CalFire told BI.
Five people have died as a result of the Eaton fire, the spokesperson said. Two firefighters were reported to have minor injuries.
Some 377,000 Californians, meanwhile, were also out of power as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a tracking site.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, and announced that the state had secured federal assistance from FEMA to support the fire response.
"There's no fire season. It's fire year," Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, noting other fires California has faced in recent months, including the Franklin and Mountain fires. "It's year-round."
Historic windstorm is 'worst possible scenario'
Officials have not yet determined how the fires started, but they erupted during a high-risk major windstorm. Combined with low humidity and dry vegetation in the region, the winds created a perfect storm for fire ignition.
The high winds were "making it extremely challenging" for firefighters on the scene, Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley said, making them unable to air-drop water on the fires Wednesday morning. But by the afternoon, water-dropping aircraft had returned to the skies.
The National Weather Service called the windstorm "life-threatening and destructive" and warned that these could be the strongest north winds in 14 years.
Experts say the dry winds helped fuel the fire.
Apu Gomes/Getty Images
Just the Palisades fire alone has already become the most destructive fire ever to hit Los Angeles County, CNN reported, citing CalFire data.
The weather service urged residents to be ready to evacuate, as such winds can rapidly spread any fire that breaks out.
"This is pretty much the worst possible scenario for a firefight," David Ortiz of the LAFD told local news station KTLA.
The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.
Even miles from the fires in South Los Angeles, smoke reduced visibility to just one block, officials said.
Smoke and flames from the Palisades Fire on Tuesday.
TIffany Rose/Getty Images
Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.
A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were also rescheduled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Disneyland, over 30 miles from the nearest fire, was still open on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, police also made some arrests for looting as some people tried to steal in the areas affected by the fires, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at Wednesday morning's press conference.
Evacuees abandoned cars as traffic stalled
Palisades Drive, the major road out of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, was already packed with slow-moving lines of cars shortly after noon Tuesday, as people evacuated beneath a smoky haze and bright-orange flames licked the hillside in the distance, shown live on ABC7.
CalFire reported that the fire was on both sides of Palisades Drive.
ABC7 spoke to multiple people who were evacuating on foot, including some who had abandoned their cars on the road.
One resident told the news channel that "a whole bunch of neighbors" were stuck in their homes on Palisades Drive.
Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire.
AP Photo/Etienne Laurent
Jonathan Vigliotti, a CBS News correspondent who was on the ground as a neighborhood went up in flames, said on X that there was "mass panic in the streets."
California and Florida have seen some of the sharpest upticks in private home insurers dropping policies.
Joe Sohm/Getty Images
Homeowners are increasingly being dropped by their private home insurers.
Regions with the highest nonrenewal rates are most prone to wildfires, hurricanes, and other disasters.
A new Senate report warns of economic risks as climate change destabilizes insurance markets.
Homeowners across the country are increasingly facing a stark new reality: they're losing their home insurance.
The share of home insurance policies from large insurers that weren't renewed increased last year in 46 states, a report released Wednesday by the Senate Budget Committee found. The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding and the rising cost of rebuilding have pushed many insurers to drop customers or hike premiums. This has left thousands of homeowners scrambling to find new insurance policies or joining the growing ranks of those going without insurance.
More than 200 counties saw their non-renewal rates spike threefold between 2018 and 2023. Counties in Northern California and South Florida saw among the highest rates of nonrenewals. Coastal counties in Massachusetts, Mississippi, and North Carolina also saw dropped policies soar. Manhattan ranks 20th, with rates of dropped policies rising from 1.25% in 2018 to 4.11% in 2023.
The national scale of home insurance nonrenewals was previously unknown because insurance companies are regulated at the state level. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said not all states collect granular data about the availability and affordability of coverage in some areas. The association in March announced an effort with state insurance regulators to try to fill the gap.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse launched his own investigation into the homeowners' insurance market last year. He received nonrenewal data from 23 companies accounting for about two-thirds of the market. In testimony on Wednesday, Whitehouse said he demanded nonrenewal data because experts suggested policies being dropped were an early warning sign of market destabilization. He also said they correlated with higher premiums.
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a lobbying group representing insurance companies, said nonrenewal data doesn't provide "relevant information" on climate risks. Many factors, including a state's litigation and regulatory environment, factor into nonrenewal decisions, the association said.
The association added that more costly weather disasters, combined with inflation and overbuilding in climate-risk regions, are making insurance less affordable for many Americans.
Home insurance premiums are rising in many regions across the country. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently reported that average home insurance premiums spiked by 13%, adjusted for inflation, between 2020 and 2023.
Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to purchase insurance, and some require additional insurance for specific disasters, including flooding. Insurers refusing to offer coverage can hurt home values because homes that can't be insured in the private market are less desirable to potential buyers.
The Senate Budget report warned that the insurance crisis will get worse as the climate crisis fuels more frequent and destructive disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding. A destabilized insurance market could "trigger cascading economy-wide financial upheaval," the report said.
"The failure to deal with climate change isn't just driving up the cost of homeowners' insurance, it's making it harder for families to even find homeowners' insurance, and that makes it harder to get a mortgage," Whitehouse said in a statement to Business Insider. "When the pool of buyers is limited to only those who can pay cash, it cuts off pathways to homeownership—particularly for first-time homebuyers—and risks cascading into a crash in property values that trashes the entire economy."
Have you been dropped by your home insurance company or are you facing a steep premium increase? Email these reporters to share your story: [email protected] and [email protected].
Firefighters at a house in Camarillo, California that was heavily damaged by the Mountain fire in November 2024.
Myung J. Chun/Getty Images
Private home insurers are dropping a growing number of customers in most states, a Senate report found.
That leaves homeowners at risk, turning to more expensive last-resort options or going uninsured.
While Florida has managed to reverse the trend somewhat, the risk to homeowners is set to intensify.
As Americans flock to places in the US vulnerable to natural disasters, private home insurance companies are running the other way.
The problem has left a rising number of homeowners with just one option to cover property damage: insurers of last resort.
The scale of homeowners losing their plans became clearer on Wednesday after a Senate Budget Committee investigation found that private insurers' nonrenewals spiked threefold in more than 200 counties between 2018 and 2023.
"What our new data reveal is that the failure to deal with climate change is also affecting whether families can even get homeowners insurance, which threatens their ability to get a mortgage, which spells trouble for property values in climate-exposed communities across the country," Senate Budget Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse said in releasing the report.
A recent study by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that between 2018 and 2023, the number of properties enrolled in California and Florida's insurers of last resort more than doubled. A similar trend is playing out in Louisiana. While Florida has reduced participation this year, it still has the highest enrollment in the country.
The problem isn't isolated to the most predictable states. The Senate Budget Committee found that the rate of homeowners losing their private insurance also rose in Hawaii, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.
Policymakers and insurers are trying to stabilize the private market, by enacting new laws and overhauling regulations. However, with scientists predicting that climate-fueled disasters will become more frequent and severe for the foreseeable future, the risk to America's homeowners is mounting.
Growing insurance risk has some states looking for solutions
In nearly three dozen states, insurers of last resort, known as Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR, are available to homeowners and businesses who struggle to find insurance on the private market.
The numbers are rising because private insurers are pulling back coverage and hiking premiums in areas at risk of wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, and other disasters often made worse by climate change.
While state-mandated FAIR plans are designed to be a backstop, insurance regulators and private insurance companies are alarmed by how many homeowners and businesses are enrolling, especially in California and Florida. The plans are often more expensive and provide less coverage. Plus, saddling one insurer with the riskiest policies increases the chances of one major disaster sinking the system and leaving taxpayers and insurance companies with the bill.
Florida and California are trying to reverse the trend, and Florida has seen some progress. The state's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, said on December 4 that its policy count dropped below 1 million for the first time in two years.
Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, said the drop reflects a series of changes in recent years to stabilize the state's private insurance market after more than a dozen companies left the state or stopped writing new policies.
Damage to a home in Grove City, Florida after Hurricane Milton struck the region.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
The Florida legislature passed laws to curb rampant litigation and claim fraud that drove up legal costs for private insurers. Friedlander said insurance lawsuits in the first three quarters of 2024 are down 56%, compared with the first three quarters of 2021 — the year before the new laws were enacted. Citizens also started a "depopulation" program that shifts customers to the private market. State regulators in October said they had approved at least nine new property companies to enter the market, and premiums weren't rising nearly as much as last year.
In California, many of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires have occurred within the last five years. As a result, some private insurers are hiking premiums and limiting coverage in risky areas, pushing more homeowners to the insurer of last resort. The Harvard study found that policies in the state's FAIR plan doubled between 2018 and 2023 to more than 300,000. As of September, the California Insurance Commission said policies totaled nearly 452,000.
The commission is working to overhaul regulations to slow the trend, including requiring private insurers to sell in risky areas. In exchange, it should be easier for companies to raise premiums that factor in reinsurance costs and the risks of future disasters. That should help stabilize rates, said Michael Sollen, a spokesman for the commission.
Sollen added that in the past, private insurers could seek approval for higher premiums but weren't required to offer coverage in wildfire-prone areas.
"In a year from now, what's happening with the FAIR plan will be a key measure for us," he said. "We expect to see those numbers start to stabilize and go down."
A mounting home insurance crisis
Still, a reduction in state-backed plans isn't necessarily a sign of progress, Steve Koller, a postdoctoral fellow in climate and housing and author of the Harvard report, told Business Insider.
A growing number of homeowners in places like Florida, Louisiana, and California are purchasing private insurance from nontraditional providers barely regulated by state governments. These so-called "non-admitted" insurers don't contribute to a state fund that guarantees homeowners will have their claims paid even if the insurance provider fails, leaving their customers without access to this backup coverage.
"Someone could be moving to a private insurer from Citizens, and that insurer might have higher insolvency risk," Koller said.
He added that more homeowners are opting out of insurance altogether. The number of US homeowners going without insurance has soared from 5% in 2019 to 12% in 2022, the Insurance Information Institute reported.
Plus, Americans are increasingly moving into parts of the country most vulnerable to extreme weather. Tens of thousands more people moved into the most flood—and fire-prone areas of the US last year rather than out of them, the real estate company Redfin reported earlier this year.
As insurers of last resort try to shift more risk to the private market, home insurance premiums are expected to keep rising. That's especially true in the areas hardest hit by climate-fueled disasters.
If private insurers exit hard-hit regions en masse in the future, Koller said states might need to become the predominant insurance provider in the same way the National Flood Insurance Program took over after the private market for flood insurance collapsed in the 1960s. Most flood insurance plans are still issued by the federal government.
"My guess is states are going to work very, very hard to avoid that and ensure the existence of a robust private market, but that's a parallel that I can't personally unthink about," he said.
Have you struggled to get home insurance, moved to an insurer of last resort, or gone uninsured? Contact these reporters at [email protected] or [email protected].
