Wildfires ravage central and southern California

[Hannah Bell]

More than 120,000 acres (485 square kilometers) have burned in the state of California alone, with thousands forced to flee their homes....Fire officials estimate that it will take at least another two weeks before the fires in California can be contained...

The current California state budget crisis has ripped apart funding for fire protection services, particularly for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire. The agency’s funds were cut by more than $27 million dollars during the current fiscal year alone. Additionally, the state recently refused to renew a three-year contract to use the massive DC-10 fire retardant bomber, widely considered to be the single most effective piece of firefighting equipment available...

This past year, insurance companies won approval from state regulators to increase home insurance premiums by 4 to 7 percent on the pretext that the rate hikes were justified by a higher frequency of wildfires in the state. The notion... is completely absurd even when taken solely from an accounting standpoint. Fires in California that have thus far caused the most property damage, such as the 2003 San Diego fire which burned over 3,000 homes, have a completely negligible effect on the industry in actuarial terms considering the fact there are over 15 million homes in the state with some form of property insurance...

The office of the state insurance commissioner nevertheless approved the rate increase after the second-largest insurance provider, AllState, threatened to no longer seek new customers in California...The responsibility for whatever damage is caused lies fully on the shoulders of the state government, including Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democratic-controlled legislature. It also lies with the large banks and massive business conglomerates who have already bled the state dry and are more than willing to use widespread human tragedy as a means to increase their profit margins.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/calw-s02.shtml