One year ago today, Americans watched in horror as Los Angeles burst into flames.
The scenes from that day were horrific. Dystopic. And absolutely heartbreaking.
More than two dozen lives were lost. Thousands of structures—including beloved family homes—were destroyed. And the total property and capital losses? A whopping $76 to $131 billion.
Things will never be the same.
Which is why we must ask: How did this happen? Was it just an inevitable natural disaster? Or could we have taken measures to stop or at least mitigate the damage?
More importantly, how can we ensure this never happens again?
Independent Institute’s new California Golden Fleece® report calls for bold reforms to ensure disasters like this don’t repeat themselves—and calls out the institutional and policy failures that transformed a natural disaster into a heartbreaking catastrophe.
In his new report, The 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires: Lessons and Key Recommendations, Research Fellow Kristian Fors lays bare the hard lessons revealed by last year’s wildfires. With clarity and conviction, he identifies the actions required by government and private actors to prevent a tragedy of this scale from happening again. Unless these reforms are implemented, Fors warns, California will remain vulnerable to another severe wildfire.
“While California cannot prevent major windstorms, it can decide how to manage its resources and whether to adopt the reforms necessary to reduce wildfire risk.”
—Kristian Fors
