The Fire Story

On the far northwest end of Los Angles, there's a massive suburb called Santa Monica.  It's maybe two miles by three miles in size.  Heading west....you got the ocean.  South and east....Venice Beach and Beverly Hills.  North....the hills and 'forests' (state parks and protected land).

The folks who live there....have money.  You can't really afford to live there unless you got some income level of $500,000 or more per year.

On the far north 'edge' of the suburb....this is where the real wealthy folks live....inches away from the state park, limited houses around you....everyone having some status of some type and semi-important in the entertainment industry.

This week, most of their houses caught on fire.  Blame will shift around....global warming will end up being the most utilized blame for the fire and massive destruction.

Here's the thing about this discussion, the fire, and the urbanization that has taken place.

The wealthy want a piece of property that is large....way out away from public viewing....with a magnificent view.  They will pay for that property.  You can list some three-acre lot for two-million-plus dollars and no one bats an eye.....they shell out the money and start building their mega-structure house.

Most folks with common sense would view this in a different way.  A kinda dry landscape with a few trees and a fair number of shrubs which have adapted to this weather landscape.  Various political positions taken to avoid cutting back on vegetation or clearing away the extreme dry or dead vegetation.  Everyone patting each other on the back for their pro-environment positions but no one sizing up the threat to their housing via fires.

All of these folks wanted risk.  They may not have recognized risk....but they signed up for massive risk.  Rebuilding?  More than likely but you have to figure....within thirty years, the possibility of your house burning down again will be better than 50-percent.  Insurance?  My guess is that as the companies pay out the hundreds of millions....they will review factors and decide that a 50-percent increase in yearly premiums will be necessary, and the risk-crowd will go ahead and pay the increased cost.

They wanted maximum risk....it's part of this game for the view and status-symbol lifestyle.