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10:45 12.01.2025 •
"The fires in Los Angeles aren't just a tragedy, they're a crime." As massive wildfires continued ripping through Los Angeles on Thursday, leaving utter devastation in their wake, climate campaigners said blame for the infernos ultimately lies with the mega-profitable oil and gas giants that have spent decades knowingly fueling the crisis that made the emergency in southern California possible, writes The Common Dreams.
"Los Angeles is burning. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped off the map. We are devastatingly unprepared for the climate that fossil fuel greed is creating," the youth-led Sunrise Movement wrote on social media as several mostly uncontained fires wreaked havoc, supercharged by roaring winds and abnormally dry conditions.
"Oil and gas CEOs know they're responsible for these disasters," the group added. "But still, they choose to fight investments in renewable energy, spread propaganda, and bribe politicians into supporting $757 BILLION in fossil fuel subsidies."
With appalling speed, the Los Angeles fires have so far scorched tens of thousands of acres, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed at least five people—a death toll that's expected to rise.
"It's like Armageddon," said one resident, a sentiment echoed by a CNN reporter in Los Angeles.
"Everyone keeps saying 'apocalyptic,'" said CNN's Leigh Waldman. "But that doesn't begin to cover it."
Total destruction in Malibu. These were beachfront homes on Pacific Coast Highway.
The Palisades fire, the largest of five blazes currently ravaging Los Angeles County, has already been deemed the most destructive in LA history.
Early estimates indicate the total economic damage of the Los Angeles fires could exceed $50 billion.
With a social media post featuring footage of the raging fires and damage in Los Angeles, Warren Gunnels, staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote: "They say the Green New Deal is expensive. Compared to what?"
Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement Wednesday that "these fires have taken lives and destroyed homes, livelihoods, and landscapes."
"We are holding those affected by this disaster close in our hearts and appreciate the first responders who are bravely working to contain the fires. It is essential that federal and state authorities continue to provide these communities with all the resources and support they need to recover and heal," said Jealous. "Barely a week into the new year, and fire season is here. This is not normal."
"Time and again, we are witnessing fossil fuel-driven climate change heighten extreme weather, making wildfires increasingly common and increasingly destructive," he continued. "We cannot be passive. We cannot elevate misinformation about what is needed to confront the worsening crisis. Leaders must take the action necessary to fund and support the home-hardening efforts that make our communities resilient."
The Los Angeles fires come as states and localities across the United States are suing oil and gas companies for climate damages as extreme weather becomes increasingly frequent and destructive on a warming planet.
According to the Center for Climate Integrity, more than one in four Americans currently live in a community taking legal action against Big Oil, "underscoring the rapidly growing wave of calls to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its decades-long climate deception and the harms it has caused."
Aaron Regunberg, an attorney who is helping build a legal case against the fossil fuel industry, wrote that the Los Angeles crisis "didn't just happen."
"A recent study found that nearly all of the observed increase in wildfire-burned area in California over the past half-century is attributable to anthropogenic climate change," Regunberg, senior policy counsel with Public Citizen's Climate Program, wrote on social media. "This devastation is the direct result of Big Oil's conduct."
Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, offered a similar assessment, writing that "the fires in Los Angeles aren't just a tragedy, they're a crime."
"This is exactly the sort of disaster that Exxon's own scientists predicted more than 50 years ago, but they spent billions to keep us hooked on fossil fuels," Henn added. "It's time to make polluters pay."
LA in fire now.
Photo: AP
Some homes affected by the Los Angeles wildfires may not have insurance.
Insurers have been canceling plans and declining to sign new ones in the state.
Years of worsening wildfires have increased payouts and other costs for insurers in California.
As wildfires destroy homes in Los Angeles, some homeowners may face rebuilding without insurance payouts, ‘The Business Insider’ writes.
That's because some insurance companies have been cutting back on their business in California in recent years as wildfires in the state have worsened.
State Farm, for instance, said in 2023 that it would no longer accept new homeowners-insurance applications in California. Then, last year, the company said it would end coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in the state. Both announcements cited risks from catastrophes as one of the reasons for the decisions.
Homes in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, one of the areas hardest hit by the fires so far, were among those affected when State Farm canceled the policies last year, the Los Angeles Times reported in April. State Farm didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Other home insurers have dropped coverage in the state, even in areas where the wildfire risk is low, NBC Bay Area reported in September.
"When insurance companies face higher losses or payouts, they typically respond in two ways: raise premium prices and stop renewing policies or writing new policies," Dave Jones, the director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a September Q&A posted to the university's website. "California insurers are doing both."
From 2011 to 2018, Jones was also California's insurance commissioner.
A new rule, set to take effect about a month into 2025, will require home insurers to offer coverage in areas at high risk of fire, the Associated Press reported in December. Ricardo Lara, California's insurance commissioner, announced the rule just days before the Los Angeles fires broke out.
At a press conference on Wednesday, one reporter asked Lindsey Horvath, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whether the Los Angeles fires would affect insurance companies' operations in California.
"I believe it already has, and the conversation is ongoing," Horvath said.
A house is threatened as the Palisades Fire grows in the mountains in the community of Topanga, California.
Photo: AFP
Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said it looks as though “an atomic bomb dropped in these areas” as wildfires rage in the county.
He confirmed five deaths that he was aware of from the devastating fires, although other officials have confirmed seven across the region.
“But even as I’m telling you that, it’s leaving my lips, I’m nervous about that number,” Luna said at a news conference.
The sheriff added that he is praying the death toll doesn’t increase, “but based on the devastation that is clear” he said he “doesn’t expect good news.”
Malibu, Pasadena – ashes…
Billionaire developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is receiving backlash online after the New York Times reported that he had hired private fire crews to protect Palisades Village – an upscale outdoor mall owned by the businessman, notes ‘The Daily Mail’.
Fire crews for hire can cost between $3,000 and $10,000 a day and are mostly contracted with insurance companies or the government.
Emergency teams have been scrambling to put out the flames that started in the affluent Pacific Palisades area on Tuesday.
Around 20,000 acres of land have been damaged and 200,000 have been told to evacuate.
The water system used to fight the Palisades fire has buckled under the demands of what has been called the most destructive fire in the city' history, with some fire hydrants having run dry.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised over the entitlement of some of the city's most privileged elites who have seemingly had access to these strained resources while the city continues to burn.
A video posted showing private firefighters guarding a Hollywood Hills house from the flames has sparked further outrage.
This is not the first time LA's richest residents have used private fire crews to protect their homes from deadly wildfires.
Back in 2018, Kim Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West were criticised after it was revealed that they had paid for private firefighters to save their home from the Woolsey wildfire.
But others praised the former couple, as their efforts ended up saving the whole neighbourhood from devastation.
Across Los Angeles some 180,000 people have been given mandatory evacuation orders, while another 200,000 have been put on alert and warned to consider fleeing their homes
There are currently six fires blazing across Los Angeles and its neighbouring Ventura county.
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