For five consecutive days, wildfires fanned by strong winds have ravaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles, destroying more than 12,300 homes and buildings and leaving at least 11 dead. Fresh evacuations were ordered from Mandeville Canyon to the Interstate 405 freeway on Friday evening because of a flare up of the massive Palisades Fire.

Firefighters battling the Palisades Fire earlier this week encountered swaths of fire hydrants with no water after the three water tanks supplying the Pacific Palisades ran dry by 3 a.m. Wednesday, Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said at a press briefing later that day.

As wildfires spread across Southern California this week, President-elect Donald Trump cast blame on state leaders and called for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to resign in a series of Truth Social posts.

Multiple major wildfires are leaving a trail of destruction and death in the Los Angeles area. A handful of wildfires that kicked up Tuesday, powered by high winds and dry conditions, have exploded in size.

The California governor invited Trump to the fire-ravaged state in a post on Friday afternoon amid intense backlash.

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.

The Los Angeles wildfires could threaten California’s already unstable insurance market, which carriers have been fleeing as disasters multiply.