Arnie might want to rethink this one. In a classic case of a perverse incentive, California state law actually encourages homeowners to build in brushy canyons prone to massive wildfires like the “Station fire”, which burned over 350,000 hectares and destroyed dozens of homes near Los Angeles this month.

In 1968, the state legislature mandated that every property owner must be able to buy affordable fire insurance, no matter how risky their location. An industry-sponsored syndicate, the California Fair Plan, serves as insurer of last resort for those deemed too high-risk for conventional fire insurance. Some 17,400 owners of brushland property now obtain insurance through this route, says Mike Harris, a spokesman for the plan.

That may be a bad idea, because coastal brushland, or chaparral, is naturally prone to infrequent but very intense fires. Unlike in forest, where planned fires can clear out dead wood and keep wildfires small, fire managers can do little to prevent massive fires in chaparral.

Risk reduction

Homeowners can take some steps to reduce their risk, such as replacing wood shingles with non-flammable material – but anyone living in chaparral must expect to be burned out eventually.


“We’ve been deluding ourselves to think we can stop these fires. They’re going to burn no matter what,” says Jon Keeley, an ecologist with the US Geological Survey in Three Rivers, California.

The best solution in the long term, fire experts agree, is to avoid building in the riskiest areas – a solution made harder by the state’s insistence on insuring such properties.