Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Thirty-one people have died and 200 are missing as three wildfires sweep through California, turning hundreds of homes into ash. The death toll from the fires now matches the deadliest blaze on record in the Golden State, the 1933 Griffith Park disaster in Los Angeles. An estimated 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. “Most of the residential area is gone—I would say 90 percent,” Jody Jones, mayor of the town of Paradise, Calif., told reporters. Flames have engulfed about 11,000 acres in the northern part of the state. “I had an opportunity to go up there and take a look for myself. Just about everyone I know lost their home.” The fast-moving Woolsey Fire, which broke out last Thursday, has consumed about 85,500 acres, including luxury homes in Malibu and beach communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Homeowners who were safely evacuated must wait until it’s safe to return to their home to learn whether it is still standing. Zuma Beach in Malibu was becoming a way station for residents who were forced to evacuate but still wanted to stay close. “We wanted to be close to home,” Pam Whitman, a real estate professional who has lived in Malibu for 40 years, told the Los Angeles Times as she walked her dog along the sandy beaches while wearing a mask. Whitman said she did not want to drive out of the area because authorities would then deny reentry to anyone in an evacuation zone.

Returned to my house in Malibu after evacuating. Heartbreaking time across California. Inspired as ever by the courage, spirit and sacrifice of firefighters. Thank you @LAFD. If you can, support these brave men and women at https://t.co/ei7c7F7cZx. pic.twitter.com/AcBcLtKmDU

— Gerard Butler (@GerardButler) November 11, 2018 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned residents about price gouging in the aftermath of the wildfires. “Our state’s price gouging law protects people impacted by an emergency from illegal price gouging on housing, gas, food, and other essential supplies,” Becerra says. He urged anyone who faced price gouging to report it to the local police department or sheriff’s office. California’s “wildfire season” typically runs from summer to early autumn, but experts have warned that the risk is now year-round. The fires are being blamed on climate change and weather conditions. “This is not the new normal; this is the new abnormal,” Gov. Jerry Brown says. “We are vulnerable because of climate change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought are part of it.”