Survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires on Thursday urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for the resignation of California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, following a report that Lara privately struck a deal with insurers allowing them to drop tens of thousands of policyholders ahead of the January wildfires.
Citing a recent New York Times investigation, members of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network pointed to a 2023 deal Lara struck a secret deal with insurance companies that incentivized them to cancel the homeowners’ policies in exchange for future rate hikes. Fire survivors say Insurance Department officials presented the deal “as a way to keep people out of the state’s high-cost, low-benefit FAIR Plan,” which aims to provide basic fire insurance coverage for high-risk properties when insurers refuse to issue policies — but the opposite occurred. The FAIR Plan nearly doubled, and many families lost coverage just months before the LA County fires.
At a press conference in Altadena, survivors said California faces two crises during Newsom and Lara’s tenures: families who can no longer buy or renew insurance, and those who still have coverage but cannot access benefits.
“Families can no longer buy or renew coverage, and those who still have it can’t access the benefits they’ve already paid for,” Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network and a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Californians can’t afford another year of failed oversight. This crisis now sits on the governor’s desk. Governor Newsom should call for Commissioner Lara to resign and install leadership that enforces the law and restores public trust.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
In a social media post earlier this week Lara defended the FAIR Plan, which is a component of the state’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy.
“We built the Sustainable Insurance Strategy knowing that insurance companies and intervenors would prod and probe for loopholes they think they can exploit,” Lara said. “This is not a surprise to anyone that has dealt with them. If it is, welcome to Earth.
“All eyes are on insurance companies including mine and (The New York Times). I won’t accept another 30 years of stagnant regulations,” Lara continued. “I’m here to finish the job — and leave the next Commissioner in a stronger position than I inherited.
“For 30 years under past Commissioners, no coverage guarantee of any kind existed,” Lara said. “This is an undeniable first and we are focused on stopping the growth of the FAIR Plan and making these regulations work for those who need coverage the most.”
According to a report by the Department of Angels, a fire survivors advocacy organization, 70% of insured Eaton and Palisades fire victims face systemic underinsurance, delays and denials blocking recovery efforts.
Another Department of Angels report in October found that more than 8 in 10 LA fire survivors remain displaced, with most expected to lose their temporary housing coverage within months.
Eaton Fire survivor Branislav Kecman said his family paid premiums to State Farm for 12 years before being dropped just months before the blaze. The cancellation forced them onto the FAIR Plan.
“That was painful enough,” Kecman said in a statement. “But what’s truly devastating is learning that our own Insurance Commissioner secretly cut a deal that encouraged insurers to drop families like ours. We thought we could trust the system. We never imagined we’d be betrayed by the very person elected to protect us.”
Jill Spivack, a longtime Pacific Palisades resident and State Farm policyholder whose home burned in the Palisades Fire, said the heartbreak she felt after losing her home has turned into outrage.
“After the fire, I thought we were protected — we’d paid State Farm for 25 years,” Spivack said in a statement. “But the real disaster was the endless maze of delays and denials. I had to put my business on hold just to fight for what we’d already paid for. Governor Newsom, your words gave us hope. Now we need your actions to make that hope real. Californians deserve an Insurance Commissioner who protects families, not the insurers doing the most harm.”
Consumer Watchdog Executive Director Carmen Balber said Lara’s deal exposed a crisis of leadership that can only the governor can resolve.
“When the regulator becomes the industry’s business partner, consumers lose,” Balber said in a statement. “Commissioner Lara’s deal with insurers gave them a reason to abandon California families and double the size of the FAIR Plan. Despite Lara’s promises, insurance companies will get big rate hikes but don’t have to sell a single new policy in wildfire-risk areas. Governor Newsom must step in and appoint a commissioner who will stand up to the insurance industry, enforce the law, and get consumers the benefits they’ve paid for.”
Lara has approved billion-dollar rate hikes for State Farm, the state’s largest insurer, while 82% of its policyholders report negative claims experiences, according to the EFSN.
The Los Angeles Times reported that five major California wildfires between 2017 and 2020 destroyed 22,500 homes and by 2025, just 38% had been rebuilt. The newspaper identified insurance as the most influential factor determining recovery — when insurers paid promptly, families rebuilt and when payments were delayed or withheld, most never recovered.
The EFSN represents more than 8,500 people, has documented nearly 500 firsthand accounts of insurer misconduct and delivered a five-step enforcement plan to Commissioner Lara, according to the group.
Elected officials representing the Eaton and Palisades fire zones — including Sens. Sasha Renée Pérez and Ben Allen, Assembly members John Harabedian and Jacqui Irwin, all Democrats — LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Mayor Karen Bass and Altadena Town Council President Victoria Knapp also have called for accountability for insurance companies.
“Too many continue to face undue claims delays, underpayments, and denials that compound their hardship and loss,” Barger said in a statement Aug. 25.
“Insurance companies should not be allowed to raise rates before we get answers into how they are treating their policyholders following this disaster,” state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez said in a statement.
Chen added that despite California’s robust consumer protection laws, “Commissioner Lara simply fails to enforce them. When survivors, civic leaders, and consumers all say the same thing and the Commissioner still refuses to act, the problem isn’t public pressure. It’s failed leadership.”
Deputy Insurance Commissioner Michael Soller defended Lara’s wildfire recovery policies.
“Commissioner Lara has moved quickly and decisively to respond to the fires including using every tool available to ensure wildfire survivors receive all the benefits they are entitled to under current law,” Soller said in a statement to HeySoCal.com. “He issued a formal Bulletin requiring insurers to fully investigate and pay legitimate smoke damage claims, took legal action against the California FAIR Plan after it failed to follow the same standards, and is currently investigating State Farm over its handling of claims.
The Insurance Department has recovered more than $135 million for wildfire survivors and insurance companies to date have paid more than $20 billion on over 41,800 claims, with 92% of claims fully paid or underway, Soller said, citing the Los Angeles County Wildfire Claims Tracker.
Department officials “have heard directly from thousands of survivors and met with survivor groups about the issues they are facing,” Soller said. “We understand their frustration and anger with insurance companies. Nobody should be forced to return to a home that is not safe or remediated.”
Soller said Lara “recognizes the magnitude of the smoke damage claims issue, and the impact it is having on survivors, and that is the exact reason he convened the Smoke Claims Task Force. For 30 years under multiple insurance commissioners, there have been no efforts to establish standards for the remediation of smoke damage and handling of smoke damage claims. We are using every tool to help current wildfire survivors and put standards in place so future survivors won’t experience the same frustration.”
Soller noted several insurance workshops the department coordinated in January to help fire survivors start the recovery process.
The Eaton Canyon and Pacific Palisades fires started Jan. 7 amid fierce winds. The wildfires caused the deaths of 31 people, devastated tens of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of homes, businesses and public facilities.
Updated Nov. 8, 2025, 11:14 a.m.
