Palisades fire in Los Angeles: How much do devastating wildfires cost?

A man who fled from California to Florida was accused of starting what eventually became known as… Palisades fireone of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history, according to the Department of Justice.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, of Melbourne, Florida, was arrested Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by shooting, according to the Department of Justice.

Insurance losses from the devastating Palisades Fire alone are expected to range between $20 billion and $25 billion, according to a January report from Verrisk’s Extreme Event Solutions Group, a leading global provider of data analytics and technology to the insurance industry.

Who is Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused in the Palisades fire of setting a deadly fire?

In all, there were more than a dozen fires that spanned multiple counties, but the Palisades and Eaton fires were the largest.

UC Anderson forecasts in February estimated that the Palisades and Eaton fires may have caused total property and capital losses of between $95 billion and $164 billion, with Insured losses Estimated at $75 billion.

California wildfires: Insured losses could reach $30 billion, Wells Fargo analysis finds

Meanwhile, Financial analysts Wells Fargo Securities issued a report in January noting that the “base case” for insured losses due to all wildfires was $30 billion, adding that total losses could fall in a range of $20 billion to $40 billion.

Of that total, about 85% of losses are expected to come from homeowners’ insurance policies, while 13.5% are from commercial property and 1.5% from personal auto losses, the Wells Fargo analysis found. The base case indicated average property values ​​hovering around $3 million in wildfire-affected areas.

Officials determined the Palisades Fire was a “stalled” fire, meaning it was a continuation of the Lachman Fire that started early on the morning of New Year’s Day 2025, according to an affidavit filed with the federal criminal complaint.

The Justice Department said that although the Lachman fire was quickly extinguished, it continued to “ignite and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation,” without anyone knowing.

Sources say the arrest was made in connection with the deadly Pacific Barrier Fire

On January 7, high winds caused the fire to emerge underground and spread above ground, causing widespread damage in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Law enforcement authorities determined – using witness statements, video surveillance, mobile phone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things – that

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The Justice Department said Renderknecht “maliciously started the Lachman Fire” just after midnight on New Year’s Eve on land owned by the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding. A week later, the same fire burned federal property, the Justice Department said.