LA Fires & Disinformation During Disasters
Sources:
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Insurance Crisis That Will Follow the California Fires, The New Yorker, Jan 10, 2025, https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-insurance-crisis-that-will-follow-the-california-fires
Shane Croucher, California Fire Victims Whose Insurance Was Cut Have Few Legal Options, Newsweek, Jan. 12, 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/california-fire-victims-whose-insurance-was-cut-have-few-legal-options-2012938
Laurence Darmiento & Summer Lin, First, they lost their home insurance. Then, L.A. fires consumed their homes, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 12, 2025, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-12/california-homeowners-are-getting-cancelled-by-their-insurers-and-the-reasons-are-dubious
Telis Demos, There Is a Safety Valve for Private Home Insurance in California, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 2025, https://www.wsj.com/finance/wildfire-insurance-homeowners-costs-3889531f
Iman Palm, Here’s the income needed to be in the top 1% in California, KTLA, Jul. 16, 2024 https://ktla.com/news/california/heres-the-income-needed-to-be-in-the-top-1-in-california/
Andrew Freedman, Climate change plays key contributing role in LA fires, Axios, Jan. 12, 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/01/12/la-fires-climate-change-drought-extreme-weather
James FitzGerald & Tom McArthur, What's the latest on Los Angeles wildfires and how did they start?, BBC, Jan 13, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxypryrnko
Amanda Marcotte, "DEI is deadly": Fox News spin on California wildfires exposes MAGA's total incoherence, Salon, Jan. 10, 2025, https://www.salon.com/2025/01/10/dei-is-deadly-fox-news-spin-on-california-wildfires-exposes-magas-total-incoherence/
Kristin Crowley Bio, LAFD, https://lafd.org/about/organizationdd/fire-chief
Maryclaire Dale, LA’s fire chief is at the center of a public spat with City Hall as wildfires rage, AP, Jan. 11, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-fire-chief-crowley-bass-9076f31e7929b559e3afede572e119a4
Erin Jones, Yes, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s budget, KGW8, Jan. 9, 2025, https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/money-verify/yes-los-angeles-cut-176-million-from-the-lafd-fire-departments-budget/536-4b902910-08f5-42d5-bc5e-bdfad1cb0560
Russell Contreras, L.A. wildfires destroy Black community birthed from Civil Rights era, Axios, Jan. 13, 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/01/13/wildfires-altadena-black-community-civil-rights
SCOPE LA, Between the 110 and the 405: Environmental Injustice in South Los Angeles, Nov. 27, 2017, https://scopela.org/between-the-110-and-the-405-environmental-injustice-in-south-los-angeles/
Transcript:
The fires burning in California right now and the resulting public reaction are a quite literal perfect storm, a natural disaster exacerbated by climate change combined with nearly half of the population in favor of a climate change-denying industrialist President who’s best friends with the richest man on the planet, both of whom are sowing disinformation that people are eating right up. A dystopian novelist couldn’t have written something like this because frankly it would be too on the nose. Though Octavia Butler got unsettlingly close in her novel Parable of a Sower in which a climate-change fueled fire destroys a town in California, set in the future which just happens to be February of the year 2025, I shit you not. Today, we’re talking big picture about the California wildfires–why did people have their fire insurance denied right before this disaster and what does this mean for homeowners going forward, how is it being used as a means to sow division and disinformation, how racism is exacerbating the disaster for some communities, because it always does, and why your “hot take” in the comments section isn’t the high horse you think it is. Some of y’all need to touch grass. Let’s get into it.
AD
I love bread and I am thrilled to say my partner on today’s video is Wildgrain, the first bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, artisanal pastries, and fresh pastas. It’s a carb box, yall. Delivered straight to your door. Wildgrain partners with small bakers and pasta makers across the country to bring you fresh carbs, like what more could you ever possibly want in life? I too had a sourdough phase during lockdown but listen I don’t have time these days, but I also love the natural starter sourdough taste. It’s a real conundrum. But with Wildgrain you get all the benefits of sourdough without the hard work–they use slow fermentation that can be easier on your belly, richer in nutrients and antioxidants, and can help lower blood sugar spikes. And this is freezer to table in 25 minutes–every item you receive from Wildgrain bakes in 25 minutes or less, so you can enjoy homemade quality whenever you want. Like I’m sorry have you ever just had croissants on demand like oh wow I could really go for a buttery delicious artisanal croissant hot out the oven right now BOOM in 20 minutes you get it. It’s truly thrilling. I also tried their giant chocolate chip cookie and, again, just on demand hot cookie straight from the oven? It truly does not get better than this. And instead of some old dry noodles, why not try artisanal noodles in your next pasta dish. The quality can’t be beat. If you want fresh breads, pastries, and pastas delivered straight to your door, and literally why would you not????? Be sure to click on my link in the description and use my code LEEJA30 to get $30 off your first box PLUS you get FREE CROISSANTS FOR LIFE if you use my link, yeah you heard that right. FREE CROISSANTS FOR LIFE if you use my link below along with my code LEEJA30. Honestly, you’re welcome!!! Thanks wildgrain!!
The largest fire in the Palisades has, as of a few hours ago, burned more than 23,000 acres. It is currently around 11% contained. The Eaton fire has burned over 14,000 acres and is 27% contained, and the Hurst fire burned 800 acres and is almost fully contained. 24 deaths have been reported so far, with 16 stemming from the Eaton fire. Numerous other fires have cropped up and been contained, this all according to reporting from the BBC. The causes of these fires remains under investigation, though lightning has been ruled out as there was none reported in the fire areas. Arsonists and utility lines are the two other most likely culprits, though there has been no official indication that those are to blame either.
While California officials grapple over responding to the crisis and figuring out what went wrong, right ring extremists including Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been quick to point the finger at truly the dumbest possible culprits.
On Fox, host Jesse Watters took a cue from a tweet by far right favorite, Libs of TikTok, I already made a whole episode about her so we won’t get into it here, suffice it to say one random person on Twitter has managed to amass so much sway that she’s informing the creation of “news” stories over on Fox, Watters, like Libs of TikTok, showed a picture of three women in order to make a larger point.What, of course, Watters and Libs of TikTok are getting as is that the devastation happening in LA right now can be blamed on the fact that things are being run by women, women who absolutely could not possibly know how to run things, and who were absolutely just “DEI” hires who stole the positions from capable men who would have had this under control.
According to reporting from Salon, that picture is 8 years old and buried in the LAFD’s Flickr account among 57,000 other images. According to Salon, “a quick view of the organizational chart shows the chief of staff, the head of emergency operations, the head of administrative operations, the heads of the regional bureaus, the head of the prevention bureau, and the head of IT are all men. Out of the 12 leaders on the page, only 3 are women — meaning a full 75% of the leadership team is male.” Watters and Libs of TikTok are too cowardly to say the quiet part out loud, but the implication is that women are to blame for this tragedy, a WILD thing to believe in 2025, but something clearly believed by many people who refused to vote for Kamala for that same reason, and a huge number of people in the comments sections of Fox and Libs of TikTok posts. I guess I should stop being shocked at this shit and yet I remain bamboozled gooped gagged and baffled, my friends.
And not to give credence to the accusation that women can’t do the job, and even though the far right never feels compelled to offer actual evidence for their claims, let me just point out that one of the women in that photo is LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, whose LAFD bio reads “As a 22-year veteran of the LAFD, Chief Crowley has proven her credibility and character by promoting through the ranks. She served as a Firefighter, Paramedic, Engineer, Fire Inspector, Captain I, Captain II, Battalion Chief, Assistant Chief, Deputy Chief, Chief Deputy, and Fire Chief.” That is the literal definition of working your way to the top, which is usually a Republican wet dream. Unless you're a lady. And a LESBIAN????? Then, ew. Clearly you didn’t earn it.
Also hating on firefighters is actually the dumbest, most cowardly, least patriotic thing I can think of. Full stop.
Other disinformation has swirled including blaming the entire devastation not on climate change but on dry fire hydrants, with talk show host Megyn Kelly blaming the Fire Chief for prioritizing DEI hiring over keeping fire hydrants full. Which is so dumb I’m certain even Megyn Kelly herself knows she’s full of shit, but she also knows her average viewer will buy the bullshit she’s slinging. It’s not even the LAFD’s job to keep the fire hydrants full. While there have been calls for investigations into WHY the fire hydrants ran dry, reporting by NPR indicated that the hydrants are really meant to be a resource for firefighters fighting a single house fire. They are not meant to put out massive forest fires. There are other resources meant for that work. Resources which, according to Kristin Crowley the DEI Fire Chief hire, are woefully missing for the LAFD, which recently underwent budget cuts of over $17 million dollars. Just last month Chief Crowley warned that the reduced budget could mean less disaster preparedness. At the same time the LAPD saw a budget INCREASE of $126 million dollars according to local reporting from KGW8, despite being, generally, pretty useless. But also, according to many experts, there is no city on the planet that could have been adequately prepared for what LA is dealing with right now.
While disinformation and accusations fly over the cause and the handling of this disaster, the people on the ground losing their houses are in survival mode, trying to pick up the pieces. For them, this fire has been personally and, for some, financially devastating.
The overall total damages caused by these fires is unknown as the disaster is still being contained, but it is estimated to be around 150 BILLION dollars, the largest natural disaster in the state’s history and, potentially, the country’s history.
All this while last summer, State Farm declined to renew fire insurance for 30,000 California homes, including 1500 homes in the Pacific Palisades, citing increased exposure to catastrophe. Past fires have resulted in net losses for home insurance companies in California, so this change has been long in the making. Numerous other insurance companies pulled out of California before State Farm.
Newsweek recently reported: “According to the California Department of Insurance (CDI), seven out of 12 of the Golden State's top insurers cut coverage in the state over the past four years.”
And those who were refused fire insurance coverage have little legal recourse. According to Newsweek, “The law usually cannot force an insurance company to undertake the risks of offering insurance to anyone unless the insurance company voluntarily agrees to take on the risk and offers insurance coverage.” State Farm decided not to RENEW fire insurance coverage, they didn’t cancel it in the middle of these peoples’ policies, so contractually speaking they didn’t break any contract they just didn’t renew, which is legally in their right. This is why what is RIGHT and what is LEGAL are two very different things, and why we need laws and regulations regarding insurance companies because they will operate in whatever way is best for their bottom line unless the law requires them to do otherwise.
According to Newsweek, “California law prevents insurance companies from non-renewing homeowners in and around a declared fire emergency area for a year after the fire.” So now State Farm or any other insurer can’t turn around and cancel coverage for people living in the area in reaction to these fires, at least not for the next year. But there doesn’t appear to be anything stopping them from denying coverage elsewhere and then pouncing the moment that one-year ban is up to deny coverage across the board in California.
According to the New Yorker, “Until [California state] rules were revised last year, they prevented companies from using so-called catastrophe models to forecast losses from wildfires; insurers could only look backward, at historical losses. Also, until last month, they could not pass on the costs of reinsurance, which is basically insurance for insurers, and which has been rising steeply in price.” Now, because of changes to the law, insurers can base coverage and prices on future estimated losses, which “catastrophe models” show will continue to increase. AND insurance companies can now pass the costs of their OWN insurance on to their customers. What a tangled web of TRASH.
The one recourse that some in California have is a state-led insurance effort called FAIR. According to the New Yorker, “As insurers have pulled out of California, the number of policies written by the state’s FAIR plan has risen steeply; just since late 2023, it has grown by more than forty per cent. Meanwhile, the value of the residential properties insured by FAIR has risen to more than four hundred and fifty billion dollars, triple what it was in 2020. This has led to worries that, with all the damage from the current fires, the plan will go broke. … Were FAIR unable to meet its obligations, the state’s insurance companies would have to make up the difference. They, in turn, would pass on at least part of the cost of this assessment to consumers, further driving up prices.” And the cost even of FAIR coverage can be too high for some homeowners. The Los Angeles Times reported that one homeowner had his Farmer’s Insurance plan raised from $4500 to 18,000, and when he looked to change to the FAIR plan, which has fewer benefits, he would have been required to cut down 10 trees on his property to improve fire safety, which was also too costly for him. I don’t know how much it costs to cut down a tree in LA, but in Minneapolis to just get a tree trimmed is like $2500. For one tree. So he decided to forego insurance on his Pacific Palisades home, and then lost his home to these fires. And this is an impossible decision that more and more homeowners are facing as the rising cost of home insurance makes owning a home, something ALREADY prohibitively expensive, even more expensive in these disaster-prone areas.
They’re seeing similar insurance issues in Colorado, where wildfires are also a growing threat, as well as FL, LA, and TX where increased hurricanes have made finding home insurance increasingly hard. So the issue of getting a home insured is becoming a bigger obstacle in areas across the country, all while homeownership generally is becoming less attainable for more and more people.
For some perspective, I didn’t really understand or give a shit about homeowners insurance until I bought a home, and even then it was still a formality that I knew was important but didn’t fully grasp HOW important until two summers ago we got golf-ball sized hail that put holes in the side of my house and damaged my roof. Just to repair my roof and siding on three sides of my house from a little hail cost $80,000. With my homeowners insurance I only had to pay about $6000 of that. That is a LIFE changing amount of money, even for people who have the good fortune of owning their own home. SO many people in this country are house poor–they own their home but a large portion of their income goes to paying the mortgage, insurance, and all the other things that come with homeownership. So insurance is VITAL even in parts of the country like Minneapolis where we have fewer environmental threats. Without it, many people in California not only just lost all their earthly possessions, mementos, heirlooms, their kid’s first grade pictures, and all the devastation that comes from that loss, but they also lost their homes, where they saw their kid take their first steps, where they saw their dad for the last time, AND, if their fire insurance was cut, they had NO financial protection. It’s all just gone. Even if they still owe money on the mortgage for the house that is no longer there. For many, that is a financial setback that they will be paying off for the foreseeable future, potentially the rest of their lives. The levels of trauma unfolding for people in California are complex and so multifaceted, especially when you take racism into account.
Yeah, that’s right, I had to bring race into this. Buckle up, buttercup, because it turns out that when disaster strikes, though the fires themselves see no color or race, the people who built the infrastructure sure as hell did. And that is having devastating consequences that are being felt most heavily by minority communities in the Los Angeles area. This is called environmental racism.
First, just to be clear, these fires are a direct result of climate change, despite what right wing media and Trump would have you believe. According to the New Yorker, “A 2023 study concluded that the area consumed by summer wildfires in California has increased by five hundred per cent during the past several decades and that “nearly all of the observed increase” is due to warming.” California is not even currently in traditional wildfire season. But environmental conditions that are consequences of a warming planet created the literal perfect storm for these fires anyway. According to Axios, just 0.16 inches of rain have fallen in LA since MAY. Over 8 months, and only 0.16 inches of rain, the second driest of that period on record. Typically they would have gotten 4 inches in that time period. AND, according to Axios, “studies show that climate change is increasing the odds that windy periods occurring deeper into the traditional "rainy season" will overlap with extreme dryness.” And it is that, combined with the extreme weather CHANGES caused by climate change, also known as “hydroclimate whiplash” that created the conditions for these fires. LA saw two years of wetter than normal weather, which caused an increased growth of vegetation. Then, drought hit, causing all that new vegetation to dry up and creating an abundance of new kindling for fires. The Santa Ana winds, which are normal, then combined with the abnormal, climate-change fueled drought, to literally fan the flames. This disaster is a perfect example of the complex, often hard to predict, interplay of the harms caused by climate change.
And while the Palisades fire is the largest and the one getting a lot of the attention, it is the Eaton fire that, despite being just over half the size of the Palisades fire, has caused the largest number of recorded casualties. 16 people have died as a result of the Eaton fire. That fire hit Altadena, a community that is comprised of 58% people of color and was home to a number of black homes passed down through generations. Altadena was one of few places during the Civil Rights movement that offered housing and loans to black home buyers. According to Axios “Recovering and rebuilding efforts typically overlook communities of color, who struggle amid the maze of insurance bureaucracies and federal disaster relief programs.”
Outside of the actual fire zone, environmental harms caused by these fires will continue to develop, and will disproportionately affect communities of color. For example, South Central LA is home to an overwhelming percentage of LA’s communities of color, largely due to racist zoning and redlining in the early 20th century that barred black people from living anywhere other than in areas near heavily industrialized zones. As a result, according to SCOPE LA, the South Central area has one of the highest asthma emergency visit and hospitalization rates in the county. The smoke from the ongoing fires and the contaminates like asbestos and lead in that smoke will impact communities that, as a direct result of racism that pushed them into dangerous industrial areas, suffer from respiratory issues at far higher rates than the general population. The true fallout as a consequence of these fires is impossible to predict and only just beginning, but race and class will absolutely play a role in who gets help and who suffers most.
And while it is absolutely imperative to keep in mind the racial and socioeconomic disparities in this disaster, I do have a bone to pick with people in the comments sections who are feeling particularly righteous from their armchairs while misdirecting their righteous indignation in all the wrong places.
As these heartfelt pleas for help or videos of people crying standing in front of burnt out husks of what were once their homes are posted online, the takes online in the comments sections are… well, they’re bad. WHAT ABOUT PALESTINE one person screams. WHAT ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA?? Cries another. AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD FOR RICH PEOPLE NOW?? Screams a third, indicating that the brain rot and failure of our public school system truly is at its apex in this country. Have you SEEN what a million dollars can buy you in Los Angeles? A modest starter home, generally speaking.
Owning a million dollar home in LA does NOT put you in the 1%. Being an actor who’s appeared in your favorite TV shows or movies ALSO does not necessarily put you in the 1%. Like let’s take some time to connect the dots, because people love to be outraged and withhold empathy online, completely untethered to reality. The systems you love to also tear apart and complain about in the comments section, and that I LOVE to run my mouth about on this show, are the same systems that are fucking people over in California. Yeah, it is insane that some of the houses that burnt down cost millions of dollars. Because our housing market is absolutely fucked, and home prices are out of control, soon to get worse if Trump follows through with deporting a huge percentage of the already depleted construction work force in this country. That’s fucked up. Let’s get mad at the system and show solidarity with the people who, despite somehow managing to find the resources to own homes in this hellscape, have now still lost everything. Yeah, it is wild that someone can be a celebrity and also serving you coffee. Because AI and media conglomeration means that actors and artists are getting royally fucked by big business and smaller studios can’t exist or thrive and the pay for actors and others involved in the TV and movie industries has been pushed ever downward. That’s fucked up. Let’s get mad at the system and show solidarity with people who, despite somehow having the desire and passion to continue acting or working in the industry despite the odds, are still getting screwed over. Your anger is justified, you just need to turn it towards the actual source of the problem, not the people you see crying on your For You Page. And yeah I’m even including the millionaires here. No one should be a billionaire. But being a millionaire, especially in LA, doesn’t really mean a lot. The cost of living is so high and the price of houses is so high, that having a million bucks in LA doesn’t really mean shit. According to reporting from KTLA, to be in the top 1% in California, you have to be earning more than a million dollars EVERY YEAR. Which is very different from having a net worth of a million dollars. Now of course if you do have a net worth of a million bucks you’re far and away much richer than a HUGE swath of the American population but, and maybe this is a hot take given the comments sections I’ve seen, and my own comments section, but being mad at millionaires also isn’t the answer. Someone’s worth 10 million bucks, god bless. Especially an actor who’s making movies, whatever. Again, your anger is valid but it is misplaced. Getting mad at someone because they’re wealthier than you is a waste of energy. The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars. The difference between some millionaire actor’s wealth versus Elon Musk’s $400 billion dollars is about 400 billion dollars. The scale is unimaginable. And the scale of the harms is directly correlated. You need to get mad at the people who have hundreds of millions of dollars, who are making their vast fortunes, sums no human could ever think to spend in a single lifetime, off the backs of laborers who they underpay or insurance companies who fuck over their clients or opiate production that takes advantage of people to get them addicted. The people who don’t even have to give a shit about California wildfires because they live in some secluded area you’ve never even heard of with a bunker and a spaceship if things really get ugly. The person who tweeted asking if there was a private firefighting service they could hire but probably voted in favor of gutting social services and funding for firefighters. The insurance coverage from companies like Chubb and AIG that are, according to the Wall Street Journal, “bespoke,” not part of the general market, and specifically aimed to give “high net worth individuals” access to insurance that the rest of the market can’t get.
You need to direct your class consciousness at those assholes. Not the people crying because their house just burned down, holy shit. And then you need to put your fucking phone down and go DO something about it. Give money to crowdfunding for people affected, send supplies, but also work for change in whatever way you can that is long-term, and big picture change. If politics is your thing, working towards rank choice voting and getting rid of winner-take-all systems would allow for the flourishing of third parties and better representation at the state and local level, and that change could eventually gain momentum and go national. Pushing for greater state laws controlling money in politics could create national momentum. If there’s a specific issue you’re passionate about, like abortion access, go volunteer to actually do something about it. Be a clinic escort, donate, join a local activist organization and protest or sign petitions or door knock or lobby your elected officials. Go DO something. You HAVE the time and energy if you’re sitting there lobbing hate comments at people on the internet, don’t fucking lie to me. Get some therapy. And then go actually make change instead of pontificating from your armchair. You’re helping no one.
SIMILARLY, the people playing “what aboutism” on social media, trying to “call people out” and “make people feel bad” for talking about the fires because other people are suffering elsewhere in Gaza or North Carolina or wherever else–yes absolutely we should not forget about those atrocities and lose sight of the work that needs to be done there, but this isn’t a fucking suffering competition. The people dying and losing their homes in California are literally in survival mode, and as a country we are watching on in horror and concerned for our fellow human beings. Competing for which cause is more “worthy” of attention or trying to make people feel bad for literally trying to survive or for paying attention to an atrocity as it unfolds, is not the high horse you think it is. Comparing trauma is a dangerous game that leads to divisions and burn out and helps NO ONE, because we literally can’t all be concerned with all things all the time. And we cannot be pitting ourselves against one another at a time when that only serves the people who want to see us divided. Again, the billionaires who don’t give two shits whether any of us live or die. There is space in our hearts for California and for Gaza. But you cannot expect the world to ignore the other atrocities happening, especially when they’re in our backyard, to focus on one singular atrocity because you’ve deemed it the worst. Your anger is justified but it is targeted at the wrong thing. Absolutely keep talking about Gaza or North Carolina or Sudan or whatever is the thing you are most passionate about, but be sure your anger is directed at the actual causes, and not spread across social media at strangers on the internet who you’ve decided aren’t paying attention to the correct things. ALWAYS be punching up. Eat the rich.
And you can join me over on MY Patreon where I just launched the Why, America? Co-Learning Lab, a learning community having discussions and making connections, along with a monthly syllabus curated by me. All year we’ll be covering topics under the umbrella theme of “Eat the Rich: Building Solidarity in the New Gilded Age.” This month’s topic is all about learning from history to fight for the future. We’re looking at and discussing past movements to see where we can learn from history, because it does have a tendency to repeat itself. This is all hosted over on Patreon, which is linked down below. If you’re interested, please join us. I’ll also be hosting a special inauguration eve seance livestream, free and open to the public, on January 19th, sign up in the description to get more details.
Thank you to my multi-platinum patrons Art, David, R_H, L’Etranger (Lukus), Joshua Cole, Thomas Johnson, and Tay. Your generosity makes this channel what it is, so thank you!
And if you liked this episode, you’ll like the from a while ago where I discuss how fucked we are for future environmental disasters with Trump as president.
