“My family lived in Altadena for decades, until our homes were tragically destroyed by the fire on January 8,” shares Lynnette West-Cater, CEO of the Pasadena Foothills Association of Realtors. “We owned four homes on our street, three of which were completely ravaged by the flames.” The family evacuated in the early hours of the morning, she recalls. “My brother was the first to return home to learn the third house had burned, and the last one was starting to go up in flames. He rushed to turn on the water at the hose bib, but there was no water — the supply had been shut off to all the properties.” Using water from the toilet tank, the sink, and even juice, mustard, and ketchup from the fridge, he and other relatives managed to save that fourth home.
Others were not so lucky. LA area residents who lost their homes, or had heavy damage, during the January fires have a long and difficult road to recovery ahead. As Redfin reported, 5,449 homes were destroyed in the two major fire sites – Altadena and the Pacific Palisades – and 905 more were damaged. What are the takeaways from this tragedy for others involved in developing, building, buying, owning and, yes, regulating home construction in high risk fire areas?
This is the second article in a short series on insights and resources homeowners and homebuilders can take away from the fires to reduce their wildfire risk in the future and increase their resilience. The first piece published last week, on March 18.
1. Rethink Landscaping
“It is time we take defensible space seriously,” cautions Ben Stapleton, the California chapter of the US Green Building Council’s executive director. Based in Pasadena, he’s less than four miles from Altadena, one of the two major fire sites. He recommends implementing Zone 0, which removes vegetation from within five feet of homes.
“Also, we know fire adapted, well-irrigated natives will reduce risk, along with strategically placed tree canopies to block embers funneled through wind tunnels, especially our native oaks.” Southern California has experienced wildfires since before any of its large cities were incorporated, so using the land’s native species just makes sense. “In some cases, the vegetation was almost left untouched while the whole home burned,” Stapleton adds.
Ivan O’Neill, CEO of Madronus Wildfire Defense in the Northern California town of Santa Rosa, site of the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire, advises clients on defensible space planning and home hardening to reduce wildfire risk. He’s an evaluator for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Wildfire Prepared Home program. When asked which the toughest program standards are to meet, he replied that the noncombustible five foot distance from structures was the challenge: “In terms of relative risk level, the Noncombustible Zone 0 is the single most important mitigation measure of the standard.”
“Two impactful building code changes would be to require only noncombustible fences within 15 feet of structures and disallow combustible mulches and ground cover within the Noncombustible Zone 0 (0-5ft from structures),” O’Neill suggests. “Solid panel aluminum fencing provides privacy, looks good, and is cost effective and durable.” Does your HOA allow this change? Are there other forces at work blocking implementation? O’Neill says he’s being told privately that industry groups are lobbying standards organizations to delay or exempt their categories to preserve profits for their high risk product-producing members. It’s likely that stricter, more comprehensive building codes will be required to overcome these challenges.
2. Rethink Land Use
“Within a quarter mile of the wildland-urban interface (WUI), it is very important that Wildfire Prepared Home [WPH] standards are incorporated into rebuilds,” O’Neill recommends. “This will minimize the potential of a wildfire from entering the urban environment and become an urban conflagration,” he explains. If those homes are hardened, it will make it easier for first responders to stay ahead of ignitions and keep them from spreading to more populated zones.
Stapleton agrees, pointing to the wind factor pushing spread: “These fires moved far from the wildland urban interface into highly urban and suburban blocks of our LA communities, so defensible space and neighborhood fire breaks leveraging open space, green space, and other opportunities for public infrastructure become more important.”
3. Rethink Insurance
“We believe the WPH program has great potential to reduce the severity of wildfire damage when properly implemented (with the certification process), which is now occurring in California and Oregon,” says State Farm spokesperson Sevag Sarkissian. He is also in favor of consumer incentives to build or retrofit to the WPH standard. “We are also supportive of the development of community-based wildfire prevention and preparedness standards. There is currently work in that area being conducted by IBHS and other organizations,” he adds, noting that State Farm offers incentives to help policy holders manage risks and lower costs.
One of the difficulties many homeowners are having to deal with now is getting paid by their insurance companies to repair or rebuild. Some were dropped by their national insurer in 2024 as companies fled the high risk state. Their recourse was finding new corporate policies or going to a California-created program of last resort, leaving many underinsured due to maximum limitations. “We have thousands of policies that needed to be replaced in the past year because of insurance companies exiting the state,” shares LA area independent insurance broker Joshua Morey. “Luckily we were able to find coverage for our clients, but the result was a significant increase in premium (usually double) and/or reduced coverage – i.e., CA FAIR plan supplemented by a [gap coverage] DIC policy.”
Many LA area homeowners weren’t as lucky, he comments. He expects to see more admitted carriers leaving the state, with some higher priced non-admitted carriers coming in. “The silver lining with the LA fires is that this instance has brought groups together for the first time to “truly” fix the broken insurance market in CA. The future will be more resilient but the next couple years will be extremely rough,” he predicts.
Morey has heard of policy discounts for resilience programs like WPH but sees some institutional roadblocks. “I’ve heard other creative ideas like this to offer discounts based on the ‘resiliency’ of your home but it takes a long time for ‘admitted’ carriers to get these discounts approved by the Department of Insurance. Non-admitted carriers and MGAs [managing general agents] will lead the charge in discounts and pricing like this because they aren’t subject to rate filings.”
“It is high time we have insurance companies at the table, working with communities, designers, and policy makers to reduce fire risk together, up front,” suggests Stapleton. “They need to be thinking longer than one-year policy renewals, to how do we work together to make strategic investments in building and landscape-level improvements that reduce risk, and then actually reward consumers for doing them.”
4. Rethink Real Estate
“We have had a significant number of listings and purchases impacted by the fires,” shares John Closson, branch manager for Berkshire Hathaway’s Pacific Palisades office. He lost his own home in the fires, he says adding, “I estimate about 75% of my friends lost their homes as well.” The impact of the fire on this luxury market has been extreme. According to local newspaper Palisades News, while the median home value for the area is $3.7 million, 79 homes valued at more than $10 million were destroyed in the fires. “The Pacific Palisades community is one of the most desirable in Southern California,” Closson maintains, and does not doubt that rebuilding will happen promptly.
What is in doubt is the timeframe for recovery. “While timing for rebuilding is uncertain and will differ owner to owner, the debris removal process has already started and depending on whether the government processes permit requests swiftly or not will dictate the pace of building.” Permitting processes, availability of labor and materials, and the insurability of properties will all have an impact, he expects, putting downward pressure on prices in the very short term. “Most expect those discounts will evaporate over time as the hurdles to rebuilding are crossed.”
The real estate professional anticipates that the desirability of the market will motivate most homeowners to rebuild on their existing sites. The desire to “get back home” is strong, he says, and substantial equity will help these property owners. “The rebuilding process will demand that the government and private sector work in unison to get the job done.”
Insurance will be a major factor in that demand. “Owners who have lost their homes and are considering rebuilding have genuine concerns about the availability and cost of insurance once those properties are completed, but it remains to be seen what the insurability of the reconstructed properties will look like.” It will be incumbent on the state’s insurance commissioner to work with the industry to address this crisis, and for his colleagues in other high risk states to learn from California’s experience.
Across town in the Altadena area impacted by the Eaton fire, West-Cater has seen the local market significantly slow. “Many listings have been canceled or withdrawn from the market, reflecting the impact of this tragedy,” she says, but adds that she expects a Spring rebound. “This resurgence may lead to increased competition in the housing market, particularly as some Altadena residents seek new properties while their homes are being rebuilt. With around 6,000 homes lost and thousands left without permanent housing, the demand for available homes will likely rise.”
The majority of homeowners have stated that they will rebuild, the Realtor notes, and they want to preserve the area’s charm and character. They are advocating for the city to maintain its current zoning, rejecting any efforts to increase population density. “They have made it clear: Altadena is not for sale,” she declares. She agrees. “I hope to see a city restored with the same zoning laws in place as before January 7 (with no additional multi-family dwellings), along with essential measures to facilitate the rebuilding process.” (Given California’s exceptional housing shortage, this may be an uphill battle for the community.)
West-Cater lists these essential measures as proper oversight, permit fee waivers, expedited permit processing, and reassessment of properties at their values as of January 7. “Mortgage forbearance for at least one year, without negative repercussions, would provide much-needed relief,” she adds. “Financial resources should be made available to all who wish to rebuild, and a dedicated task force should be established to streamline the process.”
Last Words
West-Cater does not mince words on this last point: “A thorough investigation into the cause of the fire, the lack of water at hydrants and hose bibs, and the improper evacuation notices in some areas is crucial to ensure such a tragedy does not happen again.” No one should have to fight fires with refrigerator contents!
“Now we need to find the political will to overcome vested interests that obstruct adoption of common sense measures that can avoid future catastrophes,” fire risk evaluator O’Neill adds. “As a society, we cannot afford to let these tragedies be repeated.”
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Note: All interviews were conducted by email in February and March 2025.
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