The wildfires that have ravaged Southern California over the past week have wiped out entire neighborhoods, destroying and damaging thousands of homes in Los Angeles County. If analysts’ estimates of the damages prove correct, it could be the largest wildfire insured loss in United States history.

As insurance companies operating in the area expect a barrage of damage claims in the coming days and weeks, Newsweek looked at insurers that previously declined the most claims.

Why It Matters

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, estimates that the Palisades fire, which was 19 percent contained on Wednesday morning, has destroyed 2,191 structures and damaged 397 more since it started on January 7. The Eaton fire, which was 45 percent contained as of Wednesday morning, is estimated to have destroyed 4,627 structures and damaged 486 others.

Experts expect the losses linked to the fires to be enormous. According to the latest estimates by forecaster AccuWeather, the total damage and economic loss caused by the fires could reach between $250 billion and $275 billion. That put the fires on track to be among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Many homeowners who lost their homes to the fires will count on their insurers to help them rebuild. A claim rejection might ruin their chance to get back on their feet after tragedy struck.

What To Know

Newsweek has looked at how many damage claims the biggest insurers in California for market share closed without payment nationwide in 2023, using the latest data made available by Weiss Ratings.

Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance had the highest rate of closures with no payment at the national level of all insurers operating in California. The insurer, which according to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) had a 14.9 percent market share in the Golden State in 2023, closed a total of 257,189 claims across the country with no payment that same year—equal to 49.7 of all claims closed in 2023.

Two USAA affiliates had the second-highest rate of claim denials. USAA General Indemnity Co denied 48 percent of all claims closed in 2023 across the country, for a total of 273,994 claims closed without payment; USAA Casualty Ins Co closed 428,116 claims with no payment, also equal to 48 percent of all claims closed that same year.

Newsweek reached out to USAA for comment via email on Wednesday.

Allstate Insurance closed 893,407 claims with no payment in 2023 at the national level, equal to 46.4 percent of all claims the company closed that year.

In 2023, Allstate was the sixth-largest insurer in California, with a 6 percent market share in the state; USAA followed with 5.7 percent.

State Farm General, the largest insurer in California in 2023 with a market share of 21.22 percent, denied 37.8 percent of all claims closed that same year nationwide without payment, for a total of 29,624.

Farmers, USAA and Allstate all sell more policies out of state than State Farm.

Still, these companies’ denial rates were much higher than the national average. By comparison, home insurers across the country denied an average of 37 percent of claims in 2023, according to Weiss Ratings. Weiss Ratings is an independent rating agency founded in 1971.

What People Are Saying

Weiss Ratings founder Martin D. Weiss said in September 2024, when the 2023 report was released: “There’s nothing normal about these high denial rates. They’ve been creeping up steadily for nearly two decades and have now reached alarming levels, especially among some of the biggest providers in disaster-prone states like Florida and California.

“The public can’t even begin to cope with the property insurance crisis until both the industry and their regulators provide full transparency, a change in standard operating procedure that may not be possible without strong ‘Truth in Insurance’ legislation.”

A spokesperson for State Farm told Newsweek last week: “Our number one priority right now is the safety of our customers, agents and employees impacted by the fires and assisting our customers in the midst of this tragedy.”

A spokesperson for Farmers told Newsweek last week: “We are currently focused on assisting customers who are impacted by the devastating fires and strong winds affecting Southern California. Our specially trained Farmers Catastrophe Response Team members have already begun to provide assistance to customers and we are urging local residents to remain vigilant.”

A spokesperson for Allstate told Newsweek last week: “Right now, we’re focused on helping our customers recover and rebuild their lives. We’re supporting customers who have filed claims and have teams ready to move into California once it’s safe to help on site. Allstate policyholders affected by the wildfires can file their claim through the Allstate® Mobile app, online, by calling 1-800-54-STORM, or their local agent. We’re here for our customers.”

What’s Next

The scope of the damages caused by the fires is yet to be defined and will depend on when firefighters will manage to contain and extinguish the flames. Dangerous winds kept Southern California at risk on Wednesday, though firefighters have made progress against the blazes.

According to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, winds will calm down later this week.

Gregory Rodriguez, a former California women’s prison correctional officer, who was at the center of one of the state’s largest prison abuse scandals, was convicted of 64 sexual abuse charges on Tuesday.

The jury’s guilty verdict includes convictions for rape and sexual battery on behalf of 13 incarcerated women.

Rodriguez, 56, was facing 97 counts and was found not guilty on some while the jury was hung on others, the Fresno Bee reported. His convictions include 57 felonies and seven misdemeanors, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez is one of the few California prison guards to face criminal charges for on-duty sexual misconduct, which data suggests is rampant in the state’s women’s prisons and across the US, but infrequently punished.

The scandal exposed how difficult it is for survivors of officer sexual assaults to come forward behind bars and how the system shields abusive guards from accountability.

Authorities first disclosed in December 2022 that Rodriguez was suspected of sexually abusing at least 22 people incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility, the state’s largest women’s prison, located in Chowchilla in the Central valley. Rodriguez, who had worked in the state prisons since 1995, retired in August 2022 after he was approached by investigators, the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said at the time.

In May 2023, the Madera county district attorney’s office charged Rodriguez with nearly 100 counts of sexual abuse on behalf of 13 women. Investigation records and accounts from survivors suggested a pattern – that Rodriguez would first verbally harass women, making sexually explicit remarks, then summon them to isolated areas without cameras, falsely claiming they had appointments or were needed for prison labor. He allegedly offered them items such as tobacco or gum in exchange for sex and threatened to discipline them if they did not comply or they reported him.

A Guardian investigation revealed in 2023 that the prison had received a report of Rodriguez’s abuse in 2014, but instead of firing him, punished the victim. That woman said she was sent to solitary confinement as the prison conducted its sexual misconduct investigation. She was eventually sent to another prison.

In an interview last year, she said the experience severely affected her mental health and that she was left isolated without support. She said: “I just felt trapped because I couldn’t talk to anybody … I really internalized that anger towards myself.”

After the 2014 investigation, Rodriguez went on to commit dozens of acts of sexual violence, prosecutors said.

Roger Wilson, Rodriguez’s lawyer, said in an email that he and his client were “disappointed” with the outcome of the trial: “The jury had a monumental task of wading through weeks of testimony and exhibits to reach decisions on 97 counts … The jury clearly believed some inmates and disbelieved others.” He said he couldn’t comment further while the jury continued to deliberate on issues related to sentencing.

Terri Hardy, a CDCR spokesperson, said in a statement that the verdict “reaffirms” its own investigation into Rodriguez, which it sent to prosecutors in 2022: “The department resolutely condemns any staff member – especially a peace officer who is entrusted to enforce the law – who violates their oath and shatters public trust,” she said.

Records showed that women incarcerated in California’s state prisons filed hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse by staff from 2014 to 2023, but only four officers were terminated for sexual misconduct during that timeframe.

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a group that supported victims during the trial, shared a statement from one imprisoned survivor in its press release: “This is not a one officer problem. From my experience, Rodriguez is one bad apple on a tree that’s rotten to its core,” the woman said.

“I had to tell my story in detail while facing my abuser. It was awful and humiliating. His attorney tried to paint us as liars, despite all kinds of evidence against him,” another survivor said.

The coalition lamented that women had been forced to testify in chains. “While we recognize this step in holding Gregory Rodriguez individually accountable, we call for systemic change in CDCR policies and practices that will help ensure that abuse in the women’s prisons does not continue,” advocates said in a statement.

Last year, California lawmakers adopted legislation meant to support outside investigations into claims of sexual misconduct filed by incarcerated people. In September, the US Department of Justice also opened a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse at the state’s women’s prisons, though the fate of that inquiry is unclear as Donald Trump resumes office.