While fossil fuel-driven climate change is the number one reason wildfires struck the Los Angeles area this January, fossil fuel companies are not alone in setting the stage for inevitable tragedy—or in taking advantage of it by price-gouging afterwards. Negligent practices by Southern California Edison led to the start of the Eaton Fire, while unregulated development in high-risk areas can reasonably be blamed for the complete destruction of Pacific Palisades. And in the aftermath, a collective of activists known as The Rent Brigade, found that “landlords engaged in widespread rent gouging, with our analysis identifying 1,343 instances of illegal rent increases totaling $7.7 million monthly.”
Surveillance video evidence from an Arco station close to the ignition site showed flashes from SCE transmission tower, followed by flames shortly thereafter, confirming earlier eyewitness accounts. “This is conclusive proof as to where the fire started,” attorney Mikal Watts said in a press conference on Monday, Jan 27. Power had been taken offline nearby, but not on that transmission corridor.
Meanwhile, an article in The Lever highlighted the role of unregulated development in high-risk wildfire zones. It cited a 2021 effort by State Sen. Henry Stern—who lost his Topanga Canyon home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire—to pass a bill restricting development in high-risk areas. His effort was defeated by a lobbying effort led by the California Building Industry Association.
The article noted that just such a high risk zone played a key role in the Palisades fire. “If some entity would have stopped development out in Palisades Highlands, this fire would never have spread to Palisades Village,” urban planner and environmentalist Jack Eidt told the Lever. “So they’re putting all of us at risk when these types of developments are approved on the edge.”
That development happened decades ago, but more new development continues spreading, because of the financial incentives, which fail to price in the true costs of fire damage.
This could be remedied by a range of policies that reflect true costs and provide adequate affordable housing, as many countries around the world do, and as the US did to a large extent in the segregation era, notably coming to a close under Richard Nixon.
On the back end, the Rent Collective extracted data from Zillow.com in LA County between January 7 and January 18. In that period, 15% (1,343) were rent-gouged listings. Two-thirds (901) of rent-gouged listings were new or relisted, and thus subject to the 160% FMR rule. On average, these listings were priced at 315% of FMR, almost double what is allowed by law. They found that “Instances surged by 5,065% in just 11 days, with 120 new cases identified daily,” and that “Rent gouging affects both affluent and working-class neighborhoods like Malibu and Koreatown, involving 1,152 distinct actors and 38 repeat offenders.”
“Prior to the fires, California was already experiencing a housing crisis, with a mere 24 affordable and available homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. On top of this, across LA county alone, there were already 75,000 people experiencing homelessness before the wildfires,” A memo from the National Low Income Housing Coalition explained.
Random Lengths will continue to cover the aftermath of wildfires in future issues, as well as future wildfires that are sure to come.