In January 2025, the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire caused devastation in Los Angeles. The undersigned organizations and and individuals, including fire science and policy experts, transmitted the following letter to California state and local leaders on February 13, 2025. A news release can be found here. California has the tools to rebuild Los Angeles with clear and actionable construction and landscaping requirements that will reduce wildfire risk. It must use them.
Ensuring the next generation of homes in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena are survivable and insurable is not a barrier to rebuilding—it is a necessity.
American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA)
Buildstrong Coalition
California Building Industry Association
California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA)
California Mortgage Bankers Association
California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber)
Insurance for Good
Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of California (IIABCAL)
Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I)
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)
International Code Council (ICC)
National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC)
NFIB California
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Pacific Association of Domestic Insurers (PADIC)
Personal Insurance Federation of California
Reinsurance Association of America (RAA)
Western Insurance Agents Association
Jeff Meston
Executive Director
California Fire Chiefs Association
Bob Roper
CEO
Western Fire Chiefs Association
Josh Waldo
President
International Association of Fire Chiefs
Mark Brown
Executive Officer
Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority
Jennifer Gray Thompson
CEO
After the Fire USA
Jacy Hyde
Executive Director
California Fire Safe Council
David Shew
Fire Administrator
Napa County, California
Carolyn Kousky
Founder
Insurance for Good
Jack Cohen, Ph.D.
Research Physical Scientist
Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory
US Forest Service Research, retired
Michael J. Gollner, Ph.D.
Director
Berkeley Fire Research Lab
Associate Professor and Deb Faculty Fellow
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Ann E. Jeffers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell
Former U.S. Fire Administrator
Arnaud Trouvé
Professor and Chair
Department of Fire Protection Engineering,
University of Maryland, College Park
Alexandra D. Syphard
Senior Research Scientist
Conservation Biology Institute
Adjunct Professor Department of Geography
San Diego State University
Frank Frievalt
Director
Wildland-Urban Interface FIRE Institute
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Craig B. Clements, Ph.D.
Director
Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center
Professor and Chair
Department of Meteorology and Climate Science
San José State University
Michele Barbato, Ph.D., P.E. (LA, Italy), F.ASCE, F.SEI, F.EMI
Professor of Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director
UC Davis Climate Adaptation Research Center
Director
CITRIS Climate Initiative, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute (UCB/UCD/UCM/UCSC)
University of California, Davis
Kimiko Barrett, Ph.D.
Sr. Research and Policy Analyst
Headwaters Economics
Eulàlia Planas, Ph.D.
Professor Head of the Centre for Technological Risk Studies
Chemical Engineering Department
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Kate Dargan
California State Fire Marshal (retired)
CAL FIRE
Elsa Pastor, Ph.D.
Professor
Centre for Technological Risk Studies
Chemical Engineering Department
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Crystal Kolden, Ph.D.
Director Fire Resilience Center
Associate Professor School of Engineering
University of California, Merced
Stephen L. Quarles, Ph.D.
University of California Cooperative Extension Advisor, emeritus
Chief Scientist for Wildfire and Durability, retired Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
Albert Simeoni, Ph.D.
WPI Site Director
NSF-IUCRC Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center
Professor and Department Head
Department of Fire Protection Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
James L Urban, PhD
Faculty
NSF-IUCRC Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center
Assistant Professor
Department of Fire Protection Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Guillermo Rein, PhD
Professor of Fire Science and Director of Research
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Imperial College London, UK
Christopher J. Anthony
Former Chief Deputy Director
CAL FIRE
Yana Valachovic, RPF #2740
Northern California Lead
California Fire Science Consortium
For more information or to sign your organization onto this letter, please contact mnewman@ibhs.org