LA fires poised to be costliest blazes in US history

Energy & Environment

The Big Story

California wildfire costs could be $52-$57B: analysis

The total cost of the damage from devastating wildfires scorching Southern California could amount to $52 to $57 billion in economic losses, according to a new analysis.

The finding from AccuWeather’s Global Weather Center includes both direct and indirect impacts of the fires and insured and uninsured losses.

The costs stem from property, wages, crops, infrastructure, supply chains, travel and more.

“This is already one of the worst wildfires in California history,” Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather chief meteorologist, said in a statement.

“Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss.”

To put the preliminary estimate into context, AccuWeather found that total damage and economic losses from Maui’s 2023 wildfires were $13 billion to $16 billion.

Many Pacific Palisades residents have said that they have no property insurance because companies are no longer willing to provide such protection in this very expensive and high-risk area, per the report.

If the fires continue spreading rapidly and into densely populated zones, thousands more expensive structures could burn down, the meteorologists noted, warning that the loss estimate could be “revised upward substantially.”

The Wall Street Journal noted that the fires could be the costliest in U.S. history, with insured losses more than $20 billion.

Read more from The Hill's Sharon Udasin.

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