California’s devastating wildfires are raging on into their second week. They have now claimed 25 lives. Thousands of buildings and residences have been razed to the ground from mansions in Pacific Palisades to less affluent neighbourhoods in Altadena. Close to 90,000 homes are estimated to be without electricity, as gusts blow the its destructive path and ash further and wider. Gavin Newsom, the California governor, suggested at the weekend that the fires will amount to America’s costliest natural disaster ever. AccuWeather, a private weather forecaster, estimates the economic hit at over $250bn.
The damage — and the insurance crunch that will follow — would not have been as enormous were it not for a series of misguided state policies.
In recent years, the golden state has become increasingly vulnerable to wildfires. Last year, Climate Central, a non-profit group, found that higher temperatures had increased the number of hot, dry and windy weather days across California. But neither the state’s heavily-regulated insurance sector nor its climate preparedness strategies have kept pace with the risks.