Major insurance carriers dropped fire coverage in California; is Arizona next?

LOS ANGELES (AZFamily) — It’s heartbreaking to watch as flames in and around Los Angeles destroy everything in its path.

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“Let’s get out of here. Whatever I lose, I lose,” one homeowner can be heard saying.

Aris Papadopoulos is the author of “Resilience-The Ultimate Sustainability” and an expert in extreme events. He tells On Your Side that, unfortunately, much of the destruction left behind in LA is not insured.

“Insurance is a for-profit business. And if they can’t charge the right price and they lose money because their costs are high in this case and the losses that they pay out, they’re going to withdraw,” he said.

And that’s exactly what happened. Major carriers like State Farm, Allstate, USAA and Nationwide are just a few companies over the past few years that withdrew fire coverage in California or even blocked policy renewals because they were losing too much money to previous disasters.

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And then, as recently as just last week, prior to the LA fires, more insurance companies pulled their coverage.

The timing could not have been worse as victims like a woman who tried to save her parents’ home with a garden hose.

“They’ve lived in this house for 25 years. And they’ve had the same insurance. And now, these insurance people decided to cancel their fire insurance. And we’re going through this. And (fires) just happened and they have no fire insurance,” she said.

Papadopoulos warns On Your Side that what’s happening in California could very well happen here.

“What does this all mean for the state of Arizona? We have a lot of wildfires here. What are your thoughts on that?” On Your Side’s Gary Harper asked.

“I would encourage everybody there to look at their houses and see how they can, make them more fire resistant and resilient because ultimately that’s your real insurance,” Papadopoulos responded.

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If you live in an area susceptible to wildfires in Arizona, it’s recommended that you create a defensible space of at least 30 feet between your home by laying dirt and removing shrubbery.

Use fire-resistant materials on things like roofing and siding and keep embers out by covering exterior vents with hardware cloth.

“Some of our viewers might be thinking, this is in LA. It’s not my problem, but this should probably be a wake up call for a lot of Arizonans,” Harper said.

“It definitely should. You know, a lot of people in LA never imagined this. And this is what slows down most people, they think it can happen to me,” said Papadopoulos replied.

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