How the LA Fires are Still Affecting People

By Skye Milburn

     With the LA fires starting in the beginning of January, they have finally been contained. However, they are still heavily impacting not just LA, but everyone in California.

With hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated, leaving most of them homeless, they have no choice but to try to find a new home. 

     Most people affected by the fire have lost not only their homes, but also their jobs, and even their loved ones. It’s not only the citizens who lost their homes who are struggling with housing. People who are renting or who have been evicted by their landlords to take advantage of survivors’ desperation (or because the landlords need a place to live) are struggling. 

     When a community or state like California loses thousands of homes at once, housing prices will undoubtedly increase, affecting the pricing of housing even in areas not directly affected by the fires. On top of this, the fires will raise already high home insurance rates, making buying or trying to rebuild new homes even more expensive. 

     Thousands of people affected by the LA fires have moved out of LA, and a lot of them are going further North. These new residents combined with the already increased housing prices will make living in places like Benicia more expensive than it already is and  give LA a harder time recovering.

     Total economic losses from the fire total to over $250 billion, resulting in the most costly fire in the history of the US.  People are also concerned about rebuilding the neighborhoods, because if these wildfires wiped out so many homes, what’s stopping new ones from being wiped out if another fire starts? With 28 people confirmed dead, and almost 20,000 buildings being lost, the LA fires will be very difficult to recover from emotionally, as well. 

     Debris and mud are blocking LA roads, and there are major health concerns to the remaining residents due to the poor air quality. However, all the fires have been contained, hopefully leading to an increase in health for the area.

     Even though the fires are contained, they will have lasting effects on everybody in LA, as well as homeowners throughout the state. This catastrophe will be a hard one to recover from, and we will hopefully we will take precautions to prevent this from happening again.