Los Angeles Fires Caused Up To $54B In Property Damage, New Report Says

The January wildfires in Los Angeles caused between $28B and $53.8B in property damages, according to a new report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. and the Southern California Leadership Council. 

The findings also projected that business disruptions related to the fires could result in economic losses of up to $8.9B in Los Angeles County alone between now and 2029.

“This report highlights the staggering economic and personal toll of these wildfires and underscores the urgency of investing in wildfire prevention and recovery strategies,” Gray Davis, former California governor and co-chair of the Southern California Leadership Council, said in a statement. 

“The economic losses extend far beyond the fire zones, affecting businesses, workers, and communities throughout the region,” Davis added.

The report says the real estate sector in Los Angeles County could experience the largest losses in economic output from the fires, from $515.8M lost to more than $1B.  

The lower estimate takes a standard recovery timeline used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and adds the cost of a one-year business disruption to the Palisades area “due to extensive destruction and population displacement,” the report says. 

The high-end estimate triples that FEMA timeline with the goal of representing a worst-case scenario in which “major logistical and funding barriers, extended infrastructure rebuilding, and prolonged social and economic disruptions” hinder the pace of recovery. 

If the geographic scope is widened to look at economic output lost in the entire SoCal region from the fires, the real estate sector is estimated to experience even larger losses, from $559.3M to $1.1B, depending on the same sample timelines for recovery.

Officials underscored how the economic impact of the fires will grow with the length of the recovery period.

“This study is a wake-up call,” SCLC President Mike Roos said. “Beyond the immediate destruction, these wildfires pose a long-term threat to our region’s economic stability.”

The fires that ravaged the Los Angeles basin in January are likely to be among the costliest disasters in U.S. history, and many of the local, state and national ramifications, especially for insurance, have yet to fully reveal themselves. 

The study was compiled by the LAEDC's Institute for Applied Economics.