L.A. fires, still raging, already could be the most costly in US history

The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighborhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties. Sixteen more people are missing, and more than 150,000 are under evacuation orders.

While it’s still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the U.S., because the fires occurred in densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country.

A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at $225 billion to $250 billion.

The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the L.A. County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in U.S. history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in U.S. history up to now at $12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.

The L.A. County wildfires, which were fueled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.

“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4% of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather’s Porter said.

While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That’s led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody’s noted.

That’s far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.

“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody’s analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.

It could be several months before a more concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.



(AP Photo Jae C. Hong)