Jan 16, 2025
Armed with nothing more than a garden house, ER nurse Lynn Levin Guzeman has been trying to save her parents’ home of 75 years from flames in Hastings Ranch, California. She says the insurance company canceled fire insurance on the 90-year-old couple’s home in Hastings Ranch, California just before the wildfire reached their community.
“I know I’m not supposed to be here, but this is my parents’ home,” Guzeman told ABC7 Los Angeles as she battled the flames. “And we’re going through this … and they have no fire insurance.”
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The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that as of Wednesday, 16 people had died in the Eaton fire.
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Guzman was able to evacuate her 90-year-old parents, but feared the home where she was born and raised would not survive. Without insurance, her parents will have little recourse to recover their losses. That’s why she is defying the evacuation order to protect the house.
Homeowners across California face a similar dilemma. Pacific Palisades resident Francis Bischetti was priced out of home insurance last year when he learned his premiums would quadruple from $4,500 to $18,000 — a cost he couldn’t afford. He was forced to forego fire insurance and recently lost his home in the Eaton fires.
Insurers are pulling out of California as disasters multiply
Today, according to Lending Tree, nearly one in 10 homeowners in Los Angeles County has zero home insurance. Across California, insurers are dropping homeowner policies, citing the increased risks and costs of wildfires and other disasters.
Big insurance companies — including State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Direct — are pulling out of the state entirely. State Farm alone dropped nearly 72,000 policies there.
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What California residents can do about fire insurance
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is cracking down on the insurance crisis by implementing a mandatory one-year moratorium on insurance cancellations or non-renewals for homeowners in affected zip codes, including the Eaton and Pallisades communities
“Losing your insurance should be the last thing on someone’s mind after surviving a devastating fire,” he said. “This law gives millions of Californians breathing room and hits the pause button on insurance non-renewals while people recover.”
In the meantime, some residents who have lost their uninsured homes to the Los Angeles wildfires are relying on the support of GoFundMe fundraisers to try to recover their losses.
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Danielle is a personal finance writer whose work has appeared in publications including Motley Fool and Business Insider. She believes financial literacy key to helping people build a life they love. She’s especially passionate about helping families and kids learn smart money habits early.
