Incompetence Is Why Fire Insurance Companies Have Fled California

When it's all over and Los Angeles residents take stock of their losses, will they be able to build again? Will there be any insurance companies willing to write fire insurance policies in such a badly managed state as California after the Palisades fire?

Gavin Newsom became California's governor the year after a series of devastating wildfires in 2018, including the Camp Fire in Paradise that killed 85 people and destroyed 18,000 homes. Insurance companies say eight of the 10 top wildfire-insured losses have occurred since 2017. As a result, insurance companies have fled the state faster than illegal aliens have jumped over the border on Joe Biden's watch. 

"Climate change" is the lazy excuse the Democrats have used to explain why there have been more fires and more damage from them. They claim that fires are more fiery these days. If that's true then why? 

California has always suffered from Santa Ana winds, wildfires, and hot weather. Those things haven't changed. What has changed, however, is the state's management of resources and its response to fires. California is a state of 40 million people and the state has roughly the same water capacity as when Willam Mulholland oversaw the construction of the 233-mile-long L.A. Aqueduct back in 1913. Read more about this in my upcoming piece on Where's the Water, Gavin?

Related: What Started L.A.'s Firestorm? Hint: It's Not 'Climate Change.'

I hate to sound like a broken record as I sometimes do in my West Coast, Messed Coast™ columns on these issues, but forest and brush management on federal and state lands are nearly nonexistent. Clearing brush from under trees or salvage logging is virtually unheard of these days. Building roads for logging on public lands? Forbidden. There's another way to describe those logging roads. They're called fire breaks. Firefighters use those, too.

What has Gavin Newsom done about the homeless encampments responsible for so many wildfires? Nothing. He's paid homeless people to come to California, and that population has doubled. I write about their fires here. 

California has always been a state with a high risk for fire. The only thing that has changed is the Democrats' response to it. You can't windmill your way out of it. You need competent management, a fleet of fire tankers, and water. 

An organization called Resources for the Future assessed California's fire risk in this graphic:

Newsflash: most of California is at risk for fire. What's changed is competent leadership and water policy that puts people first.  

Here's a list of insurance companies that have reduced their footprint in California.

• Liberty Mutual: Liberty Mutual announced that it would not renew dwelling fire insurance policies for about 17,000 customers in California. 
• Tokio Marine America Insurance Company and Trans Pacific Insurance Company left California.
• Safeco to drop policies in the Bay Area (8/4/2023). Safeco Insurance announced they were dropping 950 policies in San Francisco and the East Bay. 
• Farmers Insurance limits new home insurance policies (7/10/2023). Farmers Insurance announced that it was placing a cap on new policies in California. 
• Allstate no longer selling new policies (6/4/2023). Allstate, California's fourth-largest home insurer, announced they were no longer writing new policies in the state, though they will continue to renew existing policies. 
• State Farm no longer selling new policies (5/26/2023). State Farm, California's largest home insurance provider, announced it would stop writing new policies. State Farm said they will continue to issue renewals to their existing customers. 

The state has stepped in to fund a program for fire insurance, but it's frightfully expensive. 

Related: BREAKING: Thousands Evacuate L.A. Firestorms

Have new fire-mitigating policies such as water repositories — tanks, pools, reservoirs — been built in neighborhoods where dangerous fires have occurred before? Not that anyone can tell. I'll bet you environmental rules would stop them in their tracks. Even Pacific Palisades doesn't have enough money to buy fire safety when environmentalist lawyers are using house money to fight them in court. 

Why are the fire hydrants dry in Pacific Palisades, Gavin Newsom? 

That's not climate change; that's incompetence. 

Instead of paying for abortion and trans tourists, instead of paying homeless people to move there, instead of making your state a sanctuary for illegal aliens and paying their way, how about if you use the citizens' money for the citizens and buy them some damned fire protection?