When the air is warm and dry, transpiration and evaporation also suck water out of the plants and soil. That leaves dry vegetation that can provide fuel for flying embers to spread wildfires, as the Los Angeles area saw in early January.

The scourge of wildfires in Los Angeles and the surrounding area are the most destructive in the city’s history, and the city’s fire chief said the region was still in the midst of an “extreme weather event” as a new blaze quickly grew to 1,

Six wildfires continue to burn around Los Angeles county as of Friday afternoon local time, with authorities trying to contain the blazes.

More than 35,000 acres have burned so far, and at least 10 deaths have been reported, in one of the most costly fire disasters in California history.

Officials say the two biggest wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area this week have burned at least 10,000 homes, buildings and other structures

In 2019, the number of homeowners’ policies in California that were not renewed jumped by more than thirty per cent. In 2023, two giant insurers, State Farm and Allstate, announced that they would stop writing new policies for various forms of property insurance in California.

California has been hit with an exodus of property insurance companies in recent years, and the state's ongoing wildfires threaten to make the problem worse.

Lynne Levin-Guzman stood in the front yard of her 90-year old parents’ home in Los Angeles County, California, trying to protect it with a garden hose — because their insurance company no longer would.