The Palisades Fire, burning along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., has engulfed homes and raised concerns about evacuation routes and insurance gaps in the vulnerable community. The fire highlights the challenges faced by residents in high-risk areas like Pacific Palisades, where limited access and underinsurance pose significant threats during emergencies.
A beach house is engulfed in flames as the Palisades Fire burns along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2025.When fast-moving fires plagued neighboring communities in Los Angeles County years ago, a school in Pacific Palisades served as an evacuation center. After this week's disastrous fires on the Westside, that will no longer be an option.
through Palisades Charter High School, which reports show was previously used to offer shelter to people escaping Southern California wildfires like the 1977 The school itself and the neighborhood as a whole have long sat within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone of Los Angeles, prompting longtime fears of what could happen in a crisis like the Palisades fire. “There are only two main routes of ingress and egress to and from the Palisades as a whole' to the Pacific Coast Highway, the Pacific Palisades Community Council wrote in a 2020 letter to city officials in Los Angeles. A firefighter works as the Palisades Fire burns a house in the hill next to the Getty Villa, Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, Calif.The letter said that some of the neighborhood's streets were 'substandard,' adding, 'We have experienced serious problems with congestion during wildfire evacuations (most recently during the serious Palisades & Getty fires in fall 2019).' The Pacific Palisades Community Council had already been planning to talk during their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday about finding time to schedule a fire safety fair in the neighborhood and how community input could be submitted to the upcoming Los Angeles Community Wildfire Protection Plan from MySafe:LA, a nonprofit group. The wildfire protection plan in question was not expected to be finished until later this year. In a phone interview with ABC News Wednesday evening, Cpt. Chris Nevil of MySafe:LA described the plan as an evolving 'living document' and said that because so many people are involved in its creation, it has taken longer than expected to complete. Evacuees from the Palisades fire are seen at an evacuation and shelter center at Westwood Recreation Center in Los Angeles, California, on January 8, 2025.An executive summary of the plan that was previously released mentioned Pacific Palisades by name, noting that 'strong winds, notably the Santa Ana winds, can swiftly spread flames, posing threats to nearby communities like Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Woodland Hills.'Between 2020 and 2022, over half a million fire insurance policies were not renewed in Los Angeles County, according to an analysis of California Department of Insurance records by the ABC Owned Television Stations data journalism team. A beach house is engulfed in flames as the Palisades Fire burns along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2025.In Pacific Palisades, 732 fire insurance policies were not renewed in 2022 alone, accounting for 11 percent of such policies in the neighborhood. A 2021 report by nonprofit Climate Resolve found that after the Woolsey Fire, 'we learned that homes were chronically underinsured, having been assessed at the time of purchase—perhaps decades ago—and not realistically reappraised since,' adding that 'insurance is crucially important and little understood by homeowners.' J.P. Morgan Insurance issued an alert Wednesday that estimated preliminarily that 'insured losses from this fire could approach $10 billion.
WILDFIRES CALIFORNIA PACIFIC PALISADES MALIBU EVACUATION INSURANCE HAZARD COMMUNITY SAFETY
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