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Orange County agrees to settle handful of Airport Fire claims for $9.5 million
Vintage cars destroyed by the Airport Fire.
(
Etienne Laurent
/
AFP via Getty Images
)
Orange County’s Board of Supervisors has approved $9.5 million to settle a handful of claims related to the Airport Fire in 2024 that destroyed more than 160 buildings and injured 22 people.
LAist was the first to report that Orange County Public Works officials were alerted to high fire danger, yet failed to take precautions on the day a crew accidentally started the massive Airport Fire in September. And despite the warning, no water truck accompanied the crew as they worked with heavy equipment in Trabuco Canyon, even though a supervisor had asked for one and the department considered doing so a “best management practice,” according to records obtained by LAist.
For the next 26 days, the fire burned more than 23,000 acres in Orange and Riverside counties, resulting in more than $400 million in claims that county taxpayers could be on the hook for.
According to a county spokesperson, the supervisors unanimously voted — with Supervisor Janet Nguyen absent — to settle claims filed by six people for $6.5 million. The county also agreed to a $3-million settlement with a family that initially filed a claim for $46.5 million.
The settlements must still get final sign off from the director of risk management.
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How will the county pay for the claims
County spokesperson Molly Nichelson said the hit to the county’s bottom line will be determined by how much ends up being covered by liability insurance. Beyond that, it will have to come out of the general fund — the county’s main operating fund.
Nichelson declined to say how much the current coverage is. However, in December she said the county had $35 million in liability insurance coverage.
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Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
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