Damage estimate could be more than 3 times higher than previous record holder

The wildfires in and around Los Angeles may still be raging, but they’ve already racked up an enormous price tag.

As of Wednesday afternoon, firefighters were battling the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, Eaton Fire near Altadena and Hurst Fire in Sylmar, with the Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin knocked down.

But it’s the Palisades Fire in particular that is causing a great deal of damage, as it’s “impacting some of the most expensive real estate in the country, with median home values over $2 million,” AccuWeather said in a news release.

So exactly how much damage is being done? AccuWeather’s estimate is $52 billion to $57 billion, though that figure is far from solidified.

For reference, the catastrophic Camp Fire in 2018 racked up a record $16.5 billion in damage.

“This is already one of the worst wildfires in California history. Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in the release.

Porter’s fears could be coming true, as the Palisades Fire appears to be headed toward West Los Angeles and Santa Monica, areas with a great deal of additional valuable real estate.

Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, told CNN that the Palisades Fire being the costliest in history was likely, and it could cause further increases in already skyrocketing fire insurance rates.

The high cost of fixing and replacing fire-damaged homes in California has driven some insurers to drop California customers.

“This is going to become a crisis. This is going to send the wildfire home insurance crisis in California to the stratosphere, if it weren’t there already,” he said.

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