Nearly a dozen people are believed to be dead -- with the Los Angeles County sheriff saying he expects that number to rise -- as devastating fires spread across Southern California amid dry and windy conditions,

The state of California announced a one-year moratorium on the cancellation or non-renewal of homeowners insurance policies in zip codes affected by the Los Angeles-area wildfires.

Insurers are set to face a bill that could top $20 billion.

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.