Insurance claims from deadly California wildfires top $11.4B

Insurance claims from California’s deadly November 2018 wildfires have topped $11.4 billion.

State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said Monday that more than $8 billion worth of damage comes from the fire that leveled the town of Paradise and killed 86 people. About $3 billion more is from two Southern California wildfires that ignited the same week.

The $11.4 billion is just shy of the claims filed in a series of 2017 wildfires, including deadly blazes that tore through Northern California wine country.

The Paradise wildfire destroyed about double the number of homes than the wine country fires, but property values are lower in the rural Northern California region.

Including other major California fires in July 2018, total insurance claims from the year neared $12.4 billion.