Homeowners insurance should be there for you when you need it, and California is making sure it stays that way for 750,000 people affected by wildfires.
According to Bloomberg, California has put a moratorium on insurance companies canceling coverage for people affected by the Line, Airport, and Bridge fires and did so before those fires even stopped burning. It affects all homeowners in the outlined areas, even if they didn't suffer property damage from the fires. People affected live in Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.
Ricardo Lara, the state insurance commissioner, put it this way, per Bloomberg: "Wildfire survivors should not have to worry about insurance while they are recovering."
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The moratorium makes sense since most people are victims of fires, not perpetrators. In fact, hot, windy weather made the fires worse, Bloomberg revealed, and may have caused them in the first place. The Environmental Defense Fund explained that these conditions are often tied to changes in the climate. Even when fires are started by people, these kinds of conditions make them worse than they would otherwise have been.
These kinds of fires are wreaking havoc on lives around the globe, not just in California. They're affecting the insurance industry in particular, according to the World Economic Forum. Insurance prices are going up, and some companies are refusing to cover people in fire-prone areas at all.
That makes the step California is taking even more important. Fire victims deserve the chance to recover and to have help and coverage while they do so instead of having to worry about how they will pay for rebuilding their lives.
If you want to see change when it comes to the climate and how we respond to these disasters, vote for pro-climate candidates who will advocate for things like controlled burns to keep fires in check. You can also learn about wildfires yourself, so you can be a resource when needed. You can also fight against our changing climate in the choices you make every day.
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