LA wildfires

[Mark Long Beach]

2 minutes ago, Jon in Pasadena said:

At the end of the school year last May, the Choir director at my kids' HS invited all the graduating seniors and their families to a luncheon at his beautiful home.

 

Just found out it burned to the ground.

 

you need the winds to stop being a B word, so you can encircle it with firebreaks, and douse it repeatedly with ######ant from aircraft to try to keep the heat and flames down. then you just wait, you can't stop it, it can only stop itself when it runs out of fuel.

 

Biggest need is the winds to stay slow.     You can then get a fire under control.   You just can't if the winds are high and it's as dry as it is.

 

 

We normally get some rainfall in Oct/November/December which ends fire season, but none this (last) year.   We'd normally have 3 inches by now, which is a lot in the desert and wets things down.   Usually the biggest problem with the Santa Ana winds is the pollen which gets blown in from the desert and sets allergies ablaze.  Not houses.

[Jon in Pasadena]

7 minutes ago, Mark Long Beach said:

 

Biggest need is the winds to stay slow.     You can then get a fire under control.   You just can't if the winds are high and it's as dry as it is.

 

 

We normally get some rainfall in Oct/November/December which ends fire season, but none this (last) year.   We'd normally have 3 inches by now, which is a lot in the desert and wets things down.   Usually the biggest problem with the Santa Ana winds is the pollen which gets blown in from the desert and sets allergies ablaze.  Not houses.

From what I hear, they are predicting possible Santa Ana conditions to re-emerge on Tuesday. That is NOT good news.

[Thrivefourfive]

7 minutes ago, Mark Long Beach said:

 

Biggest need is the winds to stay slow.     You can then get a fire under control.   You just can't if the winds are high and it's as dry as it is.

 

 

We normally get some rainfall in Oct/November/December which ends fire season, but none this (last) year.   We'd normally have 3 inches by now, which is a lot in the desert and wets things down.   Usually the biggest problem with the Santa Ana winds is the pollen which gets blown in from the desert and sets allergies ablaze.  Not houses.

Hey, have you noticed that the winds out of the east/northeast are lasting for more days than ever before..? For as many years as I’ve been paying attention. 
 

The SA winds used to be a day, then warmer air followed for a few days, a week. Now, the winds last for a week, and it gets cooler..??!! Okay….

[BobbyC81]

On 1/8/2025 at 3:10 PM, HomeskillitMoorman said:

California and Florida have some similar issues where people are having a hard time getting their homes insured because they're in these fire and hurricane territories. That's gotta be really scary too. 

Yep, some insurance companies stopped giving home insurance policies here in Northern California.  We pay thru the Wazoo!

[jcamm1966]

Horrible hope they can get it under control

[Utah John]

On 1/9/2025 at 8:42 AM, RkFast said:

 

Be careful, theres a big difference between being dropped and a nonrenewal. Unless the laws in FL and CA are different, in NY an insurance company cant just cancel coverage unless theres a failure to pay the premium or something like that. Otherwise, they just dont renew the policy and they must provide at least 60 days written notice of such. Technically with a nonrenewal youre still being "dropped" but youre not losing coverage tomorrow or anything like that. Thats often the implication with stories like that...like the one going around on X about the "90 year old couple that lost their insurance a month ago." There is no way that couple was doing nothing wrong and their insurance company knocked on their door last month unannounced and said "sorry, as of today no more insurance for you."

 

Heres the thing about it though, which I just learned....insruance companies would be happy to raise rates and keep you as a customer. But they cant. They have to ask the state regulators to raise rates and quite often they are told no by the state. So their choice is to either keep high risk customers and lose tons of money or just dont renew their policies. GEICO stopped writing policies in NYS completely for a time becuase there was no way they could do it and not lose their shirts, give nthe fact the state was making them keep their rates artificially low. Yes higher rates suck but at least you would still have insurance. 

 

Dont get me wrong, they are still greedy bastards. Its hard to hear the insurance companies cry about empty pockets and tell you "sorry, we cant cover your auto insurance anymore becuase you had one too many $750 glass claims", but then see their massive sports sponsorships and commercials every ten seconds. I looked it up...the top insruance companies all spend over $1 BILLION a year on marketing and advertising. Im going through this right now, actually! Hence, this rant.  Im sure this situation is more complex but this is at least my undersanding of it. 

Agree with everything here.  Insurance companies need to make money.  When conditions in a particular place are likely to cause losses there, the insurance companies can either pull out of the area, request to be allowed to raise rates to cover their exposure, or spread the risk among all their customers which they do anyway.  All of us with homeowners insurance from a major national company are paying more because of hurricane and fire losses.  (Earthquakes and floods might cost us, too, depending on state regulator decisions.)  I've been a USAA member for over 40 years.  Every year USAA sends out a bonus check around Christmas, and it used to be upwards of $2000.  After the hurricanes in Florida the bonuses dropped to a few hundred. I'm not blaming USAA which is a very well managed and high-value company.  Just saying, it's not just the people in the high risk areas that pay.  We all do. 

 

So I'm completely in favor of letting insurance companies raise rates in those high risk areas.  You want sunshine in Florida or southern California?  Then you should accept the risks of living there.

On 1/12/2025 at 6:15 AM, BobbyC81 said:

Yep, some insurance companies stopped giving home insurance policies here in Northern California.  We pay thru the Wazoo!

Is there some high risk associated with northern California?  I lived there for 10 years altogether, and the only notable risk was earthquakes, which are covered by special policies.

[Jon in Pasadena]

6 minutes ago, Utah John said:

 

Is there some high risk associated with northern California?  I lived there for 10 years altogether, and the only notable risk was earthquakes, which are covered by special policies.

 

The Paradise Fire in 2018 was Northern California, and was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history...

 

...until now.

[Utah John]

3 minutes ago, Jon in Pasadena said:

 

The Paradise Fire in 2018 was Northern California, and was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history...

 

...until now.

Gotcha  Yeah, that's REALLY northern California.  For some reason people call the Bay Area northern California when it's really the central part of the state.  

[blitzboy54]

38 minutes ago, Utah John said:

Agree with everything here.  Insurance companies need to make money.  When conditions in a particular place are likely to cause losses there, the insurance companies can either pull out of the area, request to be allowed to raise rates to cover their exposure, or spread the risk among all their customers which they do anyway.  All of us with homeowners insurance from a major national company are paying more because of hurricane and fire losses.  (Earthquakes and floods might cost us, too, depending on state regulator decisions.)  I've been a USAA member for over 40 years.  Every year USAA sends out a bonus check around Christmas, and it used to be upwards of $2000.  After the hurricanes in Florida the bonuses dropped to a few hundred. I'm not blaming USAA which is a very well managed and high-value company.  Just saying, it's not just the people in the high risk areas that pay.  We all do. 

 

 

 

Same, I actually dropped USAA because my rates kept jumping. My home owners and car were rocketing up. I am going back because everyone else has now caught up. USAA is first class you know you get what you pay for. Now everyone else is putting California and Florida on us. My homeowners through Allstate went from $850 to $1590 from last year to this one. Never had a claim. Just wild. 

[BobbyC81]

7 hours ago, Utah John said:

Agree with everything here.  Insurance companies need to make money.  When conditions in a particular place are likely to cause losses there, the insurance companies can either pull out of the area, request to be allowed to raise rates to cover their exposure, or spread the risk among all their customers which they do anyway.  All of us with homeowners insurance from a major national company are paying more because of hurricane and fire losses.  (Earthquakes and floods might cost us, too, depending on state regulator decisions.)  I've been a USAA member for over 40 years.  Every year USAA sends out a bonus check around Christmas, and it used to be upwards of $2000.  After the hurricanes in Florida the bonuses dropped to a few hundred. I'm not blaming USAA which is a very well managed and high-value company.  Just saying, it's not just the people in the high risk areas that pay.  We all do. 

 

So I'm completely in favor of letting insurance companies raise rates in those high risk areas.  You want sunshine in Florida or southern California?  Then you should accept the risks of living there.

Is there some high risk associated with northern California?  I lived there for 10 years altogether, and the only notable risk was earthquakes, which are covered by special policies.

We went through several dry winters with low rainfall, incorrectly termed a “drought”.   As a result foliage was dry and fires were popping up everywhere.  The fire that wiped out the city of Paradise seemed to really affect the insurance companies.  That fire and some of the others were attributed to Pacific Gas & Electric old and defective equipment.   There were also some fires that were arson.
 

we’ve had a lot of rain here in the Sacramento area in the last couple of years.  Still, back in October there was a nearby wild fire that forced my wife and I to evacuate for a few hours until they got it under control.

[muppy]

a San Diego mega church called The Rock become drop off location for  donations to firefighters.  Costco was completely out of Kirkland water.

 

When we arrived at The Rock church we realized why.  The amount of donations was Massive.

 

https://www.sdrock.com/fillthetruck

[LABILLBACKER]

Updated numbers:

12000 structures either burned or destroyed. 29 people so far have lost their lives. Over 40,000 acres burned. The Palisades fire is about 14% contained and thankfully burning in less residential area. Same for Eaton fire, 33% contained and moving away from Altadena. Donations are flowing in as the national response has been wonderful.  Some winds expected tonight through Wednesday.  

Thanks go out to everyone giving thoughts & prayers. 

🙏 LAFD & First Responders

LAStrong

Go Bills!

Edited yesterday at 04:42 AM by LABILLBACKER

[Returntoglory]

My company is based in LA and we have a few branches in the US. I'm at our North East office right now with my owner and his son, both from LA. 

 

They are on a plane right now back home, because the fires are making the way to their community.

 

Horrific is all I can say to describe the devastation. 

[RiotAct]

7 hours ago, blitzboy54 said:

 

Same, I actually dropped USAA because my rates kept jumping. My home owners and car were rocketing up. I am going back because everyone else has now caught up. USAA is first class you know you get what you pay for. Now everyone else is putting California and Florida on us. My homeowners through Allstate went from $850 to $1590 from last year to this one. Never had a claim. Just wild. 

insurance, in general, is one of the bigger scams in history TBH.

[Motorin']

3 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Updated numbers:

12000 structures either burned or destroyed. 29 people so far have lost their lives. Over 40,000 acres burned. The Palisades fire is about 14% contained and thankfully burning in less residential area. Same for Eaton fire, 33% contained and moving away from Altadena. Donations are flowing in as the national response has been wonderful.  Some winds expected tonight through Wednesday.  

Thanks go out to everyone giving thoughts & prayers. 

LAStrong

Go Bills!

 

It's hard to fathom the scope, but the total amount of area burned is larger than the entire City of Buffalo. Praying the work to contain it keeps it from spreading further! 

 

[WotAGuy]

2 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

insurance, in general, is one of the bigger scams in history TBH.

I don’t know, that prince in Nigeria must be CEO of an insurance company then. 

[90sBills]

On 1/11/2025 at 5:00 PM, Thrivefourfive said:

Hey, have you noticed that the winds out of the east/northeast are lasting for more days than ever before..? For as many years as I’ve been paying attention. 
 

The SA winds used to be a day, then warmer air followed for a few days, a week. Now, the winds last for a week, and it gets cooler..??!! Okay….

I mentioned this exact thing to my wife the other day. I really don’t remember sustained SA winds for this long of a time. 

[Beck Water]

On 1/13/2025 at 10:32 AM, Utah John said:

Is there some high risk associated with northern California?  I lived there for 10 years altogether, and the only notable risk was earthquakes, which are covered by special policies.

 
Yeah, there have a been a bunch of fires there of recent years.  Napa Valley wineries lost production because the grapes had smoke taint and were unusable; the Camp Fire (Paradise) was northern Cali.  Oakland, Orange, and San Bernardino Counties have all seen fires.

[TheBrownBear]

17 hours ago, muppy said:

a San Diego mega church called The Rock become drop off location for  donations to firefighters.  Costco was completely out of Kirkland water.

 

When we arrived at The Rock church we realized why.  The amount of donations was Massive.

 

https://www.sdrock.com/fillthetruck

Are you a Rock Church member?  My kid plays guitar at the School of Rock (unaffiliated) across the street and I've always wondered what one of those mega churches was like...lol (I'm a lapsed Catholic).

[North Buffalo]

On 1/9/2025 at 8:25 AM, muppy said:

the official Billsbackers  bar  in san Diego is THE Local in Pacific Beach off of Mission  on Thomas Ave

Oceanside may have their own venue though

 

if you do travel to PB upstairs is the stadium type feel rowdy bunch. Downstairs has more individual tables and not as Loud

 

GO BILLS

 

football at such a tragic time as this ...Highly stressful and just horrific what is going on in LA