US$1.6 billion for California wildfire

It is huge cost to California Insurer in history.

Please be noted the following quotes.

Of the 23 fires, the Witch Fire in San Diego has caused the most property damage so far and is likely to result in insured losses of US$600 million to US$1 billion

The fires have burned more than 465,000 acres of land and destroyed more than 1,600 structures since Oct. 21. More than 27,000 buildings remain under threat, and nearly 1 million people have been forced from their homes, making it the largest ever evacuation in California and the biggest in the United States since Katrina.

This image, captured by a NASA satellite on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007, shows smoke coming off the numerous wildfires from Santa Barbara,.Calif., stretching into Mexico, spreading over the Pacific Ocean. Walls of wind-whipped flames consumed hundreds of homes across tinder-dry Southern California on Tuesday, raising the number of people forced to flee the flames into the thousands.

Volunteer firefighters from Running Springs try to halt the spead of flames in Green Valley Lake, a community about 12 miles east of Lake Arrowhead. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / October 22, 2007)

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