Jacob Margolis
covers science, with a focus on environmental stories and disasters, as well as investigations and accountability.
Published April 3, 2025 5:00 AM
Retardant is dropped over the Palisades Fire. What's in that bright red cloud?
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David Swanson
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
LAist partnered with USC researchers to test samples of Phos-Chek, the fire retardant dropped on the Eaton and Palisades fires. The results came back positive for heavy metals including arsenic, chromium, cadmium and lead.
Why it matters: More than 190 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped across California since 2006, according to data from Cal Fire. It's an often used tool that both the fire agency and the U.S. Forest Service have called critical.
Is it dangerous? The risk for people with limited exposure, such as homeowners or hikers, is “very low," one expert told LAist. However, questions remain about chronic exposure for firefighters. Aquatic ecosystems, however, are a concern.
Company response: LAist shared the USC lab result with Perimeter Solutions, the retardant's manufacturer. Jeff Emery, president of global fire safety, said the company’s products, including Phos-Chek MVP-Fx, have passed extensive testing. He added that the amount of heavy metals found by LAist was far below limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency and “any concerning levels for human health and safety.”
Read on ... to learn how fire retardant is used and what it means for the environment and people's health.
Not long after the Palisades Fire broke out Jan. 7, firefighting aircraft began drawing bright red lines with fire retardant across the Santa Monica Mountains, in an effort to slow and contain the flames.
By the time the fire was out about three weeks later, the MD-87s, S-2Ts and mammoth DC-10s had performed more than 280 drops across 20 square miles, according to data from Cal Fire obtained via public records requests.
LAist partnered with researchers at USC to test samples of the fire retardant gathered from fire zones in the weeks after the Palisades, Eaton and Franklin fires where it remained on the ground.
Those tests found toxic heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium and chromium, which can accumulate in the environment and pose risks to humans and wildlife, according to federal and state environmental agencies.
Fire authorities say retardant is a critical component of the firefighting arsenal.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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Tests USC conducted on LAist's behalf found the presence of heavy metals in unused retardant and in samples collected after the recent fires.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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A product called MVP-FX, a variant of Perimeter Solutions' Phos-Chek, was the primary aerial retardant dropped on the Eaton and Palisades fires, according to the company.
The presence of heavy metals in MVP-Fx has not been previously reported.
LAist shared the USC lab results with Perimeter Solutions. Jeff Emery, Perimeter’s president of global fire safety, said the company’s products, including Phos-Chek MVP-Fx, have passed extensive testing. He added that the amount of heavy metals found by LAist was far below limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency and “any concerning levels for human health and safety.”
The presence of heavy metals isn’t noted in safety documents publicly shared by Perimeter Solutions.
Aircraft often drop more retardant than water each year on fires in California. From 2006 to 2024, more than 194 million gallons of various types of fire retardant were dropped by aircraft, according to data from Cal Fire.
“We don’t check into every single thing that’s in there,” said Chris Jurasek, deputy chief of tactical operations at Cal Fire.
He said his agency relies on the U.S. Forest Service to test and verify the safety of the retardants it uses. The use of fire retardants is a “critical” component of the firefighting arsenal, according to both Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service.
Why we had to run our own tests
Late last year, LAist requested samples of MVP-Fx from Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and Perimeter Solutions, which manufactures the product, for the purpose of running an independent analysis for heavy metals. All declined.
“It’s not in our interest to share product with public or private agencies,” Jurasek said at the time. “You are not the first person to ask for us to give them fire retardant. It happens. It’s not something we do.”
Fire retardant coats laurel sumac in the Santa Monica Mountains after the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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A bag of laurel sumac covered in Phos-Chek, gathered in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was later taken to USC for testing.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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So over the next few months we gathered our own samples from the field.
After the Franklin, Eaton and Palisades fires were under control, I hiked to remote sites and collected vegetation, trash and dirt that had been caked with fire retardant. The samples were placed into baggies and taken to the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory at USC, where the fire retardant was tested for heavy metals.
Marella Schammel, a Ph.D. student, scraped dried red flakes into tubes filled with a diluted mixture of nitric acid and ran them through an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer.
Flakes of Phos-Chek were scraped into tubes along with diluted nitric acid for testing.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, antimony, thallium, vanadium and zinc were all found in the samples.
Emery told LAist that any trace heavy metals found in testing were “naturally occurring.”
Phos-Chek MVP-Fx is primarily made of ammonium phosphates, which are derived from phosphate. That rock, when mined, can contain trace amounts of heavy metals.
“There are no heavy metals added to any of our formulations,” Emery said.
Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and Perimeter Solutions all dismissed the results of the testing — saying that the samples couldn’t be relied on because they were gathered in the field. That the potential for contamination by ash from burning structures and brush after the retardant was dropped from planes was too great.
Eventually, LAist obtained unused, unmixed MVP-Fx and verified the source and authenticity of the material.
What we found
Marella Schammel, a Ph.D. student at USC, prepares samples of Phos-Chek for testing.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Samples of Phos-Chek loaded into an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry machine for testing.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Like the materials collected in fire zones, this unused sample was sent to the USC lab.
Schammel processed the MVP-Fx and found the same heavy metals present as the field samples we gathered.
There were some differences. However, it’s unclear if those differences are due to contamination on the ground or if there’s a variance in the amount of heavy metals present in different batches of the product.
“I’m not too surprised,” said Daniel McCurry, professor of civil and environmental engineering, who oversaw the testing process. Last year he and Schammel analyzed another Phos-Chek variant — LC95 — and found heavy metals as well.
LC95 is one of several USDA approved retardants in use today and one of the variants manufactured by Perimeter Solutions. Cal Fire doesn't use the LC95 variant.
Those results — from tests sparked in part by questions I’d asked McCurry in 2019 about whether we should be concerned about what was in fire retardants — made me want to know more about what is in the fire retardants in use now.
In an effort to compare USC’s test results to the official safety testing required by the federal government, LAist reached out to both Perimeter Solutions and the U.S. Forest Service, an agency within the USDA, for detailed test results for MVP-Fx. Neither would provide them.
In a statement, the U.S. Forest Service said that retardants that qualify for use have to show “nondetectable or trace levels” of certain heavy metals. However, the test results are proprietary information protected by nondisclosure agreements.
'Let people know what they're dealing with'
LAist’s review of publicly available documentation related to MVP-Fx, including its safety data sheet — which is required to warn those who may come in contact with the product of potential risks — found no reference to the presence of heavy metals.
A firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant as the Palisades Fire burns amid a powerful windstorm in January.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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After reviewing LAist’s results and the company’s safety data sheet, Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law, said the company is likely in violation of multiple California laws and regulations including Cal OSHA standards, unfair competition law and Proposition 65.
“The Cal OSHA hazard communication standards require that a safety data sheet identify every hazardous ingredient in the product,” Polsky said. “Companies often resist disclosure requirements.
“To me this situation is disturbing if unsurprising.”
When asked about the safety data sheet, Emery said that the company works to “ensure compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements concerning our product.”
A firefighter stands amid vegetation covered in retardant in the hills of Mandeville Canyon in January.
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Valerie Macon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Some who regularly work with Phos-Chek said that LAist’s findings were a surprise to them.
“ The heavy metal thing, I can tell you, was news to me,” said Joel Lane, air tactical group supervisor with the Orange County Fire Authority. He’s worked in the industry for decades and has come in contact with different variants of Phos-Chek, both during preparation and when it’s been dropped on him by aircraft.
Lane said that he’s never been told or read in official documentation that heavy metals could potentially be present in retardant, which he finds upsetting.
He said the lack of transparency is concerning, but that it wouldn’t be the first time.
Lane feels firefighters were left in the dark about the risk of PFAS — long-lasting chemicals used in firefighting foam and in the heavy gear firefighters wear — that have been tied to elevated rates of cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Lane himself recently survived prostate cancer.
“ Be transparent, be open. Let people know what they're dealing with,” Lane said. It’s only then that they can make informed decisions about risks for themselves, he added.
LAist asked the U.S. Forest Service about potential risks to firefighters, to which they responded that “risk assessments of firefighter exposure to retardants do not indicate an increased risk for health effects,” pointing to a health assessment conducted by the agency, which includes MVP-Fx.
Although the assessment says risks are expected to be generally negligible, it doesn't explicitly mention heavy metal exposure. The U.S. Forest Service didn’t respond to whether heavy metal contamination was taken into consideration for the assessment.
Widespread safety concerns after the fires
As recent fires burned whole neighborhoods, thousands of homes were destroyed, leaving behind a toxic stew of materials from lead paint in older homes, wiring, batteries and other hazardous substances. The aftermath has been a concern for many in the region looking for a path to rebuilding.
Heavy metals can pose a serious health risk and have been tied to increased rates of cancer, as well as reproductive and developmental issues in humans.
That said, multiple health experts told LAist that the risk to members of the public exposed to the retardant when doing activities like hiking, is likely low, given the concentration of contaminants present in our samples.
“It should not be a reason for panic, but maybe it's a reason for caution,” said Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, professor and chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, who reviewed the results.
Retardant coats a playground at a Mandeville Canyon home after the Palisades Fire.
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Valerie Macon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Fire retardant covers a pool and lounge chairs dropped from a firefighting aircraft.
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Justin Sullivan
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Getty Images
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Sanjay Mohanty, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA, agreed, saying that the risk for people with limited exposure, such as homeowners or hikers, is “very low.”
If you or your pets are exposed, it’s a good idea to wash it off.
Environmental effects
Retardant is a particular concern if it gets into aquatic ecosystems.
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Valerie Macon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Fire retardants can be particularly dangerous to aquatic ecosystems, according to a U.S. Forest Service environmental impact study published in 2011.
Once retardant enters waterways it can lead to elevated ammonia levels, which in turn can be toxic to salmon and trout. And there’s a possibility that an influx of nutrients from retardant can boost algal growth and create dead zones, killing off organisms there.
Because of these risks, the U.S. Forest Service prohibits the dropping of retardant within 300 feet of waterways, though it does happen. There have been more than 240 intrusions since 2012, according to another U.S. Forest Service environmental impact study from 2023.
However, even if the retardant doesn’t get dropped directly on waterways, it can get washed into them by rain. Heavy metals can settle in streams and ponds and potentially have devastating impacts on organisms there.
William Clements, a professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Colorado State University, homed in on the cadmium LAist found in the MVP-Fx.
“ If even a small fraction of that ends up in that stream, that is cause for concern,” he said.
If you or your pets are exposed to fire retardant, it's a good idea to wash it off.
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David McNew
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Getty Images North America
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The heavy metal can get taken up by sponge-like algae, which is then eaten by aquatic insects such as mayflies and stoneflies, which can die when exposed to the cadmium. Exposure to the heavy metal can also inhibit their reproduction, growth and ability to emerge from streams, compromising a source of food for fish and birds, according to Clements.
“ The levels of metals will increase and will be bioconcentrated over time. Not now, but in a year, two years, maybe five years from now,” said Dmitri Deheyn, a marine toxicologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“ People need to make the association that the impact is a lingering impact that will be diffused and diluted over time and space.”
In an effort to figure out how much heavy metal was spread throughout the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains during the Eaton and Palisades fires, LAist requested information on the total number of gallons of retardant dropped, from both the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire, via records requests. None were fulfilled.
If you’re in the firefighting world and have any samples of Phos-Chek or another type of fire retardant you’d like to share, please reach out.
Tuesday’s election results may offer an early clue about how vulnerable legislative California Republicans will fare in November.
Why now: Embattled Republicans from Sacramento to San Diego have drawn a crowded field of Democratic challengers. The primary, where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, will decide which Democrats will face off against those GOP incumbents in November.
Why it matters: Democrats in those competitive districts are banking on President Donald Trump’s waning popularity and the impact of his policies — chiefly high tariffs, immigration crackdowns and the war in Iran — to hurt Republicans. To fend off the challenges, GOP incumbents have tried to keep Trump’s name at a distance while appealing to their base of Trump loyalists.
Read on... for more on how today's election offers a clue.
California Democrats are targeting a handful of vulnerable GOP state legislators in hopes of flipping their seats blue.
What are their chances? Tuesday’s election results will offer an early clue.
Embattled Republicans from Sacramento to San Diego have drawn a crowded field of Democratic challengers. The primary, where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, will decide which Democrats will face off against those GOP incumbents in November.
Democrats in those competitive districts are banking on President Donald Trump’s waning popularity and the impact of his policies — chiefly high tariffs, immigration crackdowns and the war in Iran — to hurt Republicans. To fend off the challenges, GOP incumbents have tried to keep Trump’s name at a distance while appealing to their base of Trump loyalists.
In Riverside County, expect a rematch between Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, a Corona Republican, and Democratic Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, who lost two years ago by a razor-thin margin despite amassing a significant war chest. Tonight’s election will likely foreshadow the results in November, when the two will meet again for a final matchup.
In the Coachella Valley, three Democrats are vying to unseat GOP Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez of Coachella, who has adopted a more moderate perspective on immigration than his fellow Republican colleagues. Similarly, in three other purple districts, from northern Sacramento County to Orange County, tonight’s election will test the Republicans’ popularity.
Democrats are also playing defense in Southern California: Sen. Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat, faces Republican challenger Laura Bassett tonight in the toss-up district in San Diego County.
In some of California’s deepest blue corners, Democrats running for open seats are fighting each other to break through. In the coastal Southern California district that includes Malibu and Santa Monica, half a dozen Democrats are vying to succeed Sen. Ben Allen, who is running for insurance commissioner. In Los Angeles, a fierce five-way race has split some of the most powerful labor unions and Democratic groups to replace Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gipson, who will term out by the end of the year.
In San Diego, the race to replace GOP Sen. Brian Jones, who is also terming out, is a battle between two Republican factions that offers a glimpse into the future direction of the party: Will a moderate San Marcos city councilmember endorsed by Jones be more palatable than a far-right firebrand? We’ll find out.
Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis at the State of the State ceremony on March 8, 2022.
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Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
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CalMatters
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Topline:
The race for California’s second-highest political office features a competitive slate of Democratic candidates, from Treasurer Fiona Ma to Newsom administration official Josh Fryday and the former mayor of Stockton.
Why now: Some elected offices are pit stops. California’s lieutenant governor is one of them. Voting ends on Tuesday and voters are choosing between an unusually competitive roster of candidates for the No. 2 job in the state, an office few aspire to without one key disclaimer: It’s a step on their way to another job in politics.
Why it matters: The lieutenant governor wields little power beyond stepping in when the governor leaves the state. But it’s been used as a slingshot to the governor’s office before, by Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Gray Davis, and seeking the office is often a signal that its officeholder has higher political ambitions.
Read on... for more on the race for lieutenant governor.
About the live results
We'll get our first results shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. tonight.
In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote by mail ballots received before June 2, followed by early votes cast at vote centers before the primary election day, then votes cast in-person on Election Day.
Some elected offices are pit stops. California’s lieutenant governor is one of them.
Voting ends on Tuesday and voters are choosing between an unusually competitive roster of candidates for the No. 2 job in the state, an office few aspire to without one key disclaimer: It’s a step on their way to another job in politics.
The lieutenant governor wields little power beyond stepping in when the governor leaves the state. But it’s been used as a slingshot to the governor’s office before, by Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Gray Davis, and seeking the office is often a signal that its officeholder has higher political ambitions.
State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Newsom administration official Josh Fryday and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs are the leading Democratic candidates in a top-two primary that will send two candidates on to the November general election. Fryday, who heads volunteer programs for the state, has amassed the biggest treasure chest — nearly $4 million — and is backed by teachers unions and the governor.
Ma, a longtime politician with deep roots in San Francisco, has endorsements from influential labor unions and has raised about $2.8 million. But her run for the second-highest statewide office is shadowed by 2021 sexual harassment allegations that Tubbs supporters have latched onto. Ma has called the allegation “frivolous”, but the state paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by one of her former employees.
Tubbs was among the first to announce his campaign in 2024. Once a progressive star, he rose to political stardom 10 years ago as a young big city mayor who piloted a guaranteed income program in Stockton. Ousted by a Republican newcomer, his political career seemed to fade and he went on to lead Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, an advocacy organization. It’s his first crack at public office since then, and he’s garnered support from progressive Democrats and the powerful union SEIU California.
Longtime state lawmaker Gloria Romero is the leading Republican. Romero spent 12 years representing east Los Angeles in the state Legislature as a Democrat. She switched parties in 2024.
Higher education at the forefront
The major Democratic candidates have struggled to set themselves apart on policy. Because the lieutenant governor sits on all three college governing boards, each has claimed they would work to make universities build more housing and lower tuition costs. This has included practical solutions from directing Federal Student Aid applicants to food assistance program CalFresh, to more far-fetched ones such as free tuition for in-demand programs such as nursing.
The lieutenant governor also sits on the commission responsible for millions of acres of public land. Fryday thinks identifying more undeveloped land to build student housing on will help lower tuition costs.
Ma wants Cal State universities, which rely heavily on state funding, to find other revenue sources through partnerships with private companies.
At an April candidate debate in Los Angeles, Tubbs said he supports freezing tuition but did not elaborate on how he would make up the loss in revenue.
Romero seeks greater transparency about faculty, salaries and housing allowances and would push for more student representation on the UC Board of Regents.
To set themselves apart, the Democrats have leaned on their distinct backgrounds. Fryday has made clean energy a core part of his campaign as a former executive of a clean energy organization started by billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. Ma has framed the job as another bulwark against the Trump administration. Tubbs, who works as an unpaid economic adviser to Newsom, has focused on affordability and cutting tuition for low-income families.
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A first-grade student looks at a phonetic alphabet at Peralta Elementary in Riverside, on Nov. 19, 2025.
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Kyle Grillot
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CalMatters
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Topline:
A San Diego school board leader and veteran state lawmakers are running for California state superintendent. Two of them will advance to the November election.
Why now: A quiet primary race for state superintendent of public instruction is winding down Tuesday, with no clear front-runner emerging from a wide field of well-qualified candidates for California’s top schools job.
Why it matters: Ten candidates — including several legislative veterans — are vying for the opportunity to oversee the state’s 10,000 public K-12 schools during a tumultuous time. Schools are grappling with AI in the classroom, budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, lackluster test scores and other challenges.
Read on... for more on the race for state superintendent of public instruction.
About the live results
We'll get our first results shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. tonight.
In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote by mail ballots received before June 2, followed by early votes cast at vote centers before the primary election day, then votes cast in-person on Election Day.
A quiet primary race for state superintendent of public instruction is winding down Tuesday, with no clear front-runner emerging from a wide field of well-qualified candidates for California’s top schools job.
Ten candidates — including several legislative veterans — are vying for the opportunity to oversee the state’s 10,000 public K-12 schools during a tumultuous time. Schools are grappling with AI in the classroom, budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, lackluster test scores and other challenges.
The job itself is also up in the air. Gov. Gavin Newsom in January proposed an overhaul of California’s school governance structure, with far fewer duties for the superintendent. Instead, the State Board of Education, an 11-member body appointed by the governor, and a newly appointed education commissioner would hold most of the decision-making power. The superintendent would act as more of a policy advocate.
The shift would streamline a cumbersome and often opaque bureaucracy, adding transparency and accountability, Newsom said. It would also align California with most other states. Candidates for the superintendent position blasted the proposal, saying it takes away power from voters and concentrates too much control with the governor’s office.
Newsom and the current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, are both termed out this year.
Charter schools are no longer a divisive issue
The race for superintendent — at times, in previous election cycles, one of the most expensive and contentious races on the ballot — has been unusually quiet this year. In the most recent poll, conducted in April, no candidate garnered more than 10% of voters’ support, and 32% of voters were undecided. As of last week, no candidate had raised more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That’s in contrast to the 2018 superintendent race between Thurmond and Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive, which generated more than $50 million in donations.
But there have been a few surprises in the race. The California Teachers Association and its historic nemesis, the California Charter Schools Association, endorsed the same candidate: Richard Barrera, a San Diego Unified school board member who was little known outside San Diego until this year. Both groups cited his accomplishments on the school board and his commitment to public education.
The dual endorsement shows how much has changed in education debates. For the past two decades, charter schools have been the No. 1 division in the superintendent’s race, generating millions in campaign donations from both sides. This year the subject has barely been mentioned, probably because charter school enrollment appears to have plateaued and both types of schools are now dealing with the same issues.
Another surprise has been the popularity of Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board. Shaw made headlines in 2023 when she took on Thurmond over the privacy rights of transgender students, and has made anti-LGBTQ policies the focus of her campaign. In the April poll, she was tied with Barrera.
Other top candidates include: Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, former head of the Assembly education committee; Josh Newman, former head of the Senate education committee; Anthony Rendon, former speaker of the Assembly and a longtime early education program administrator; Nichelle Henderson, a Los Angeles Community College District board member, and Ainye Long, a teacher in San Francisco Unified.
Fire crews battle the Eaton Fire as it impacts a structure in Altadena on Jan. 9, 2025.
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Eric Thayer
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Associated Press
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Topline:
Have you lost your insurance or seen your premiums rise? The commissioner regulates the nation’s biggest insurance market and faces a complex set of issues as wildfire risk grows.
Why now: Californians finish voting Tuesday for who they think can best tackle one of the toughest jobs in the state: insurance commissioner. The commissioner is responsible for regulating the nation’s largest property insurance market that includes home and auto, plus health, pet, ride-hailing and life insurance, as well as workers’ compensation.
Why it matters: But the hot topic in the past few years as wildfire risk has increased has been home and fire insurance. The next commissioner will face many challenges that include trying to balance property insurance availability with affordability. Some insurance companies that had stopped renewing policies or writing new ones in the past few years are now taking advantage of new regulations that allow them to use new tools in setting their rates. This generally means premiums will rise as the Insurance Department, headed by the commissioner, is likely to keep approving increases in homeowners’ insurance premiums.
Read on... for more on the insurance commissioner race.
About the live results
We'll get our first results shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. tonight.
In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote by mail ballots received before June 2, followed by early votes cast at vote centers before the primary election day, then votes cast in-person on Election Day.
Californians finish voting Tuesday for who they think can best tackle one of the toughest jobs in the state: insurance commissioner.
The commissioner is responsible for regulating the nation’s largest property insurance market that includes home and auto, plus health, pet, ride-hailing and life insurance, as well as workers’ compensation.
But the hot topic in the past few years as wildfire risk has increased has been home and fire insurance. The next commissioner will face many challenges that include trying to balance property insurance availability with affordability. Some insurance companies that had stopped renewing policies or writing new ones in the past few years are now taking advantage of new regulations that allow them to use new tools in setting their rates. This generally means premiums will rise as the Insurance Department, headed by the commissioner, is likely to keep approving increases in homeowners’ insurance premiums.
The new commissioner will also have to deal with the aftermath of last year’s Los Angeles County fires. Insurance-claim delays and denials are a key part of the slow pace of rebuilding and recovery. State Farm, California’s largest individual insurer, and the FAIR Plan, the state-mandated fire insurance provider of last resort, are both facing lawsuits from homeowners and legal action from the insurance department over their handling of claims from those fires.
The leading Democratic candidates are state Sen. Ben Allen, who will be termed out of the Legislature; Jane Kim, head of the California Working Families Party who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Patrick Wolff, a financial analyst who has never held public office; and Steven Bradford, the former state senator and assemblymember. Neither of the leading Republican candidates has held statewide public office, either: Stacy Korsgaden, a longtime insurance agent, and Merritt Farren, an attorney who lost his home in the Palisades fire last year.
The candidates CalMatters interviewed mostly agreed on the problems that need to be tackled but proposed different solutions. A few of them have called for increased financial involvement by the state: Kim wants to establish a state authority for wildfires and floods funded by a portion of policyholders’ premiums. Farren wants to create a state reinsurance authority funded by a fee insurers charge their policyholders, something both Kim and Allen have expressed interest in. Bradford said he would study a public-private partnership to help keep insurers writing policies in California.
Consumer advocacy groups and former insurance commissioners say the job is complicated and involves a “brutal balancing act” that takes into account the needs of homeowners, business owners, landlords and renters while keeping insurance companies confident that the rates they’re charging match the growing risk of wildfires in the state.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, the Democratic congressman whose district includes much of Contra Costa and Solano counties, was the state’s first insurance commissioner and held the position two different times. He told CalMatters that the commissioner job is “complex, hard, detailed work.”
