The fires in California

[herpastcanchangethefuture]

Is anyone else watching in disbelief? It just so awful to see so many people lose their home and I keep thinking about all the animals who would have been terrified and trapped too. I was watching the news on it last night and people were saying their insurance companies had recently revoked their insurance so they won’t be covered.

It’s just awful.

it's horrendous. Ongoing too. I heard the actor James Woods talking about losing his house and that the insurance company stopped insuring their area about 4 months ago! I know some celebs will be able to afford to move on and buy another place but it doesn't replace all the memories. A house is more than bricks and mortar. And many non celebs will have lost homes and not be insured or able to start again. Sky were talking to a 91 year old yesterday who'd lost everything 😔

It wouldn't surprise me if insurance companies go bust with the cost of this. The cost of these houses and contents is going to be astronomical. This is a scary issue as we get more disasters- insurance won't be viable and we'll be left on our own.

so many celebs have lost homes: Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore, Adam Brody and Leighton Messer, Paris Hilton..list goes on. These are often 10 million dollar properties. Insurance companies will go under.

Meh. These specific fires now are happening to people who have high net wealth mostly, and they knew they had high net wealth living in those areas. They'll be ok. My aunt lives in Santa Monica & is posting a lot about the air quality being bad; this is a recurring fire-season issue in SoCal anyway. Not nice, but they have experienced the fire skies lots in last 30+ years.

My cousin got burned out of her home & fled (no formal alarm system, 20 minutes notice) with 4 other family members (including her 80+ yr old mother) as part of Tubbs fire in 2017. Losing everything changed a lot of their life planning and they are ok, better even, with many fewer resources to draw upon than the rich people affected now. Cousin was lucky to have renter's insurance. I wasn't in UK then but I bet there wasn't half as many foreign news reports because rich famous people weren't affected. I can't find interest in what happens to rich or famous people.

Californians have known for 50 years that we were badly managing envt in ways that increased the fire risks & people just shrugged.

And yet people still deny global climate change is an issue....

“Meh”?

Really?

People have lost everything, animals are suffering, this is your reaction?

Yup ! Huge numbers of People lose their homes & livelihoods & animals suffer all the time, daily. But we tend not to hear about it unless the people are already famous.

A lot of the houses aren't insured, most in Malibu were uninsurable due to coastal erosion. It doesn't matter if you live in a £10m mansion or a one bed apartment, no one should have to watch their house and memories burn.

Trailer parks have burned down. It's not just wealthy celebrities that this is happening to.

was thinking there will have to be a Hollywood Benefit for those stars traumatized by the loss of their $10 million house.

I have a friend in Topanga who I couldn't reach yesterday and I was really worried but she sent a message overnight that she, her family and pets are all evacuated safely, thank goodness. Her home is so beautiful and she worked so hard on it that its horrible to think she may lose it but of course at this moment it is the lives or people and animals that matter.

I just can't imagine living somewhere with so much risk like this, my friend has been under threat from wildfires before in recent years but never as close as this. She's always said they would rebuild in the same place if her home was lost. I suppose as a native Californian she's grown up with the risk of fire and earthquakes while my little British mind can't imagine being ok with that.

It’s not all millionaires who have lost everything. It’s ordinary people too, it’s businesses burned down and people losing their jobs.

Have some humanity.

It's very sad and it doesn't matter who has what money, these are people's personal belongings. While some can afford to rebuild their memories like photos and other things can't be replaced. These fires have affected people from all walks of life and from all different wealth.

@Wendysfriend I agree, While some people have a lot of money it doesn't stop them from suffering and being traumatised by the loss of everything they have. They are just humans like the rest of us even if they are rich and famous. Money doesn't insulate anyone from all suffering.

The clip of a man begging for his cat to be rescued made me cry.
I don't really feel anything for the multi million dollar pads burning.

The issue is people building on the land which used to be scrub and acted as a fire break ( also taking ground water out to put in their swimming pools ).

It's very much not only the super rich being effected. I have several colleagues impacted by evacuation and at least one has lost everything.

Even if you can afford to replace the physical goods and buy a new house, people will still be suffering the loss of things that can't just be replaced, memories, sentimental value, and the trauma of seeing everything vanish.

It's truly horrific.

California is suffering from climate change

Compared to most other US states it has taken climate change seriously and the per capita footprint is low ( for the US - the uk average is I think lower - these numbers change quite fast )

www.statista.com/statistics/489494/major-us-state-energy-related-carbon-dioxide-emissions-per-capita/

Why would you choose to live somewhere uninsurable? Especially somewhere like California, where presumably there are huge areas that are insurable. That's what my small British mind can't comprehend. It seems mad.

This isn't about celebrities, yes there are some who are affected but the sheer scale means this would have been a massive news story regardless. Ordinary people losing homes, jobs, businesses in the blink of an eye. Horrifying.

Horrendous. And I gather that LA is running out of water - they’ve had hardly any rain so far this autumn/winter.

Of course Trump will continue to claim that climate change doesn’t exist.

If insurance companies don’t actually go bust, presumably they’ll just whack up premiums and refuse insurance to many more homeowners.

The same reason so many in this country live in flood zones that insurers refuse to insure for flood damage?

Local family/support ties, negative equity in property, having to take whatever you can afford/find.

Because when you bought it there was no problem

Things that were fine for centuries are now becoming problems because things are getting worse

I'm saddened to hear the amount of people on social media today proclaiming that 'it doesn't matter because they are celebs'. WTF is that all about. Having money doesn't negate the loss of memories, personal items, photographs of your children, pets, family items that are irreplaceable for everyone regardless of how much money they have.

It won't cost $10mil to rebuild though, a lot of the worth was the land value and the prestige of the address.

I do have sympathy for all of them though... doesn't matter if its a trailer park or a mansion, its still memories and home. Plus there are people injured and killed.

Good luck to all the firefighters, paramedics, and all the other emergency crews .