Got a friend just outside the Santa Monica evacuation zone, the pictures he shared yesterday were bad enough but now looks like there's fire the other way as well. Horrible.
Los Angeles Fires 2025
- Thread starter calodo2003
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This is a bit of a dodgy twitter account I think, they do a lot of war coverage that is not always truthful, but as far as I can tell this is a genuine video from Malibu. Not sure if its PCH or old malibu road, the last time I was there was pre covid.
I would think the minimum house value there is 3-4 million, and I suspect the full cost could be in the billions given how many of them are just gone. I doubt anyone is going to get insurance againif they rebuild.
I would think the minimum house value there is 3-4 million, and I suspect the full cost could be in the billions given how many of them are just gone. I doubt anyone is going to get insurance againif they rebuild.
Is that a waterfront which appears in a 2 and a half men?
We may well find that wildfire would be excluded too if it's classed as a high risk area, I don't deal with much in that part of the world to know but tempted to fish out some policies now!
Altadena
Malibu
Malibu
Not sure.
That was Malibu Colony, a private gated community, leading off Malibu Road.
In typical fashion, Musk and Libs of TikTok have blamed this on DEI.
Shameless scum.
Shameless scum.
Musk is busy shitting on LA mayor, people like him never miss an opportunity to shit on someone, even in these kind of events.
One of the more industrious MAGA devotees, James Woods, has lost his house to the fires.
Got no shits to give him.
@Raoul You're in my thoughts, brother. Hope it starts to wind down.
There's one for sale here for £32,500,000: https://www.rubyhome.com/idx/23736-malibu-colony-rd-malibu-ca-90265/25870839_spid/
Like Florida and other areas getting demolished by natural disasters over and over the good and the bad thing in this country, is that copy and paste pre fab and pre framed construction will restore large parts of it in relatively little time and people will make lots of money off doing so. The downside of course is that yet again it wont motivate anyone to look for long term solutions. Lets hope its different this time but I doubt it. In America only those with money will have solutions privately funded like the gated communities that paid for their own fire prevention services.
Stay safe. I've been glued to the TV watching this hoping for some good news. Hopefully they can get it under control before it gets to where you are.
Will insurance pay for any of this or will they find ways to screw everyone over? There's always disaster relief but I personally know some people who are still unable to rebuild from hurricane Sandy which happened in 2012.
I think one of the first questions is probably how many people were either knowingly or unknowingly canceled/dropped from their fire insurance and what shenanigans the carriers play with the riders. If they are covered: claims processing will probably be backed up for a while.I know that is one thing that screws people each and every time.
I once experienced a mass flooding event and many with flood insurance didn't get covered bc of a technicality in the riders: most had flood insurance that covers fully natural event occurences but bc the rain overloaded the sewers and water was forced back into people s homes as they also got clogged the carriers deemed it a man made event. The rationale is that the water didn't come from the outside as much as it came back through the sewer system. Many many got denied bc of it. Luckily I did have that rider but I'd say the majority did not. I was also in the fortunate position to be able to afford restoration before insurance money came thru. Many are not. I suspect there are games being played like that in CA as well.
And then of course assuming anyone is covered or not - premiums will likely skyrocket to either cover their "losses" or as insurance carriers pull out , just as they did in Florida.
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Evacuation orders lifted in my area. The smell of smoke is intense and ubiquitous throughout Hollywood.
Is the worst over or is the fire still spreading rapidly in some parts?
Fingers crossed you're in the clear then.
If the remaining big fires are spreading its not nearly as fast, if at all, than they were two days ago. The winds were so bad a couple of nights ago that helicopters couldn't do stuff like this, which makes a massive difference.
How they respond to this in the long term will be interesting.
Surely it's time to start adapting the area assuming these fires are going to become the norm. Can't fathom how much that would cost though.
Surely it's time to start adapting the area assuming these fires are going to become the norm. Can't fathom how much that would cost though.
That's great.. hope this gets contained soon.. some of the pictures look scary.
There's really not much that can be done, just as it can't for significant earthquakes. In this case, LA hasn't had any substantial rainfall since last May, so any one off event such as the absurdly high winds that hit the area a few days ago is going result in something going terribly wrong. Mother Nature always wins.
Insurers are not looking too good between this and the health care industry profiteering. Newsom was implementing a mandate where insurers had to cover homes in CA, I don’t recall the details. But it was to fight these insurers from just canceling policies because a home that has been somewhere for 80 years suddenly is deemed an unsafe area. I don’t know what the answer is, as you said rates will skyrocket. The Palisades featured plenty of mansions too so one Palisades fire is going to be 10 or 20 times a standard CA fire in terms of loss.
We are in quite an age.
Was watching a very interesting video last night on YT's B1M channel on the insane scale of Tokyo's investment in emergency preparedness. Its pretty awe inspiring but it also makes you realize that in some ways the density of a city like that makes it more cost effective if you quantify it merely based on population density and distances than the insane scale of everything we would need in this country. I.e. how do you prioritize something the size of California and it everything it needs to protect against not just wildfires, but also mudslides, earthquakes etc when at the same time you know there is so much more at risk in this country. The Japanese approach seems to almost be the encourage people to cluster up in areas that can then receive 90% of the focus.
Also, maybe we should believe the insurance companies refusing to insure in high risk areas like this and Florida. At this point if you decide to rebuild in areas touched by the wildfire then you're simply asking for it down the line.
Sprawl is a mere byproduct of the American Dream™. It explicitly states you must have a yard with a picket fence. The Japanese may be more prepared than us for emergencies but do they have yards and huge garages to park their F150s in? Exactly.
And of course local and state governments subsidize sprawl, and the 2nd and 3rd order effects. Because if suburb and exurb dwellers bore the true costs, they'd be running into the cities where there's more people to spread the cost of utilities and emergency services.
But that's another topic entirely.
I know rightGlad you’re ok @Raoul
Thanks. Looks like the worst is behind us. Now, the trick will be getting the bigger fires under control, which should be helped by the winds finally reducing back to normal in the next 24 hours.
Yeah i read previously that the gusts of winds were carrying the red hot embers to new areas and sparking new fires. Hard to mitigate against that!
Glad you’re ok man.
Thanks man.
There's no visible smoke but the smell of lingering fires from last night is still pretty overwhelming.
Fires in So Cal have always been the norm. Its a chaparral climate zone and fire is the natural order here. There isn't really much to do. Increasing population density the way some have suggest wouldn't work at all. With these types of the fires, it would actually be far more dangerous to build up than sprawl out. The last building I would want to be to be caught in is a Tokyo style condo building if brush fires were quickly spreading. It's not even like Malibu with mudslides or Floridas Key West with hurricanes where its obvious there is much greater risk in certain neighborhoods. Because of the nature of chaparral fires, huge chunks of the city will always be close to open spaces with bushes (and Eucalyptus trees) that, when a drought happens, will be extra susceptible to fire.
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Wasn't the wisest choice of tree to bring in from Australia given
True! It was really not a great import. We should be cutting down all the Eucalyptus and replacing it with native trees.
Wildfires are pretty much the norm in all of California. The confluence of vegetation and drought, often coupled with high winds is generally bad news. Recently, its actually less common in LA than it is in the northern parts of the state...
This page provides a good history of CA fires.
https://projects.capradio.org/california-fire-history/#6/38.58/-121.49
Because smoke is black?
@Wing Attack Plan R @Raoul
It seems like things are on the up, which is good - but in any case hope all is well and stay safe.
It seems like things are on the up, which is good - but in any case hope all is well and stay safe.
Thanks. I think we are through the worst of it. I am wondering about what the rebuild will look like. Malibu and Topanga and parts of the Angeles Crest Highway routinely burn every handful of years, but this is the first time in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
For those outside this area, LA is a desert with foothills that form long canyons, and the microclimates of these canyons are different from the greater area. From basically the water out to Azusa there are communities tucked up against these foothills. The Eaton fire came down from the foothills and spread across the flats, so these people had no idea they were in a dangerous zone. My friends lived there for 20 years with no problems. The foothills are great for hiking, camping, backpacking, cycling, birdwatching; there are dozens of waterfalls in wetter years, it’s cooler temperatures than the flats, and some of the foothills even get snow. It’s really different from the TV image of LA. It’s not a case of building too far up into the wilderness. These fires and many like them are sparked by lightning, and then the burning embers are carried by these microclimate winds.
It’s hard to see how to make changes that will keep people safer, it would be literally forcing around 15 million people to find somewhere else to live. My neighborhood was in a bad fire in 2009, the local foothills burned for days. The hill it burned was 5,075 feet high, to give perspective on what we mean by foothill. It’s going to be an insane bureaucratic mess sorting this out.