The Every Fire Survivor’s Network and a team of UCLA researchers on Monday launched the L.A. Fire Survivor Insurance Survey, which organizers said is a first-of-its-kind effort to create an open public record of how insurers perform for families after disaster.
The survey is on the internet at FireSurvey.org and will close when an adequate number of survivors have responded to create statistically meaningful results, according to the EFSN.
No comprehensive public dataset exists to provide answers about insurance recovery from the Eaton and Palisades fires, EFSN members said. Key questions include:
“Did some insurance companies systematically underinsure their policyholders?
“How is each insurer handling smoke-damage claims?
“Did some insurers systematically nonrenew policyholders and move them onto the FAIR Plan before the fires?
“Which insurers show patterns of delays, underpayments or denials that warrant further investigation?
“Which insurers are communicating effectively and sending capable adjusters?
“And which insurers fulfilled their contracts, paid survivors fully and on time, and did a stellar job helping their customers recover?” according to the advocacy organization initially called the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
A Los Angeles Times report on the five biggest California wildfires before 2025 found that eight years later, 38% of families who lost homes had rebuilt. The leading factor that determined who rebuilt was whether insurers paid in full and on time.
The nonprofit Department of Angels reported that 70% of insured survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires are facing delays, denials or underpayments that are delaying recovery efforts. That percentage was based on a survey of 1,983 adults in fire-impacted communities from June 3-11, 2025.
According to the EFSN, insurers still owe LA fire survivors tens of billions of dollars. The survey aims to show where that money is getting stuck, which problems are isolated, which are patterns and which insurers are keeping their promises.
“Some insurers count on wearing families down until they run out of money or energy to fight back,” EFSN Executive Director Joy Chen said in a statement. “One family can’t know whether what happened to them is happening to thousands of others. But when survivors come together, we can see what’s really happening and hold insurers accountable.”
The EFSN retained Aimery Thomas — managing director of The Future Organization and a research expert who has worked for insurance industry clients — as the survey’s design and security consultant.
Questions for the survey were developed with “law enforcement and insurance bad-faith litigators” to reveal potential patterns of unlawful conduct, survey organizers said. Questions measure customer experience indicators such as trust, satisfaction, communication and the competence of insurance adjusters.
When combined, survey answers can show which patterns need further investigation, law enforcement action or litigation, and which insurance companies performed well for customers.
“Insurance companies sell policies, but what they are really selling is trust,” Thomas said in a statement. “Families pay premiums for years believing their insurer will be there when they need them most. This survey is designed to measure what happens when that promise is finally tested, and show which insurers delivered.”
A UCLA research team will aggregate and analyze the survey results and lead development of the public data visualization tools.
“We are honored to partner with Every Fire Survivor’s Network on this survivor-led effort,” said Gabriella Carmona, senior research analyst at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said in a statement. “Our role is to help turn thousands of individual experiences into rigorous public data. When that evidence is in the public domain, survivors, researchers, journalists and decision-makers can see the patterns, and use that knowledge to help families get home.”
Fire survivor advocates said the data can provide leads for law enforcement investigations and potential prosecution, lawsuits, investigative journalism and regulatory enforcement while also providing evidence for policymakers considering insurance reforms.
Survey results will be anonymized and aggregated so no individual household is identifiable, with additional protections where combinations of information could risk identifying a household, according to the EFSN.
The survey will create three free public resources that put the results directly into people’s hands, EFSN reported:
1. “Open data — An unprecedented public dataset will let survivors, researchers, journalists, regulators, attorneys and the public uncover patterns and compare insurers, with data aggregated so no individual household is identifiable.
2. “Interactive data visualization — Anyone will be able to select an insurer, issue or survivor experience, filter and combine variables, and instantly turn the results into clear charts and comparisons. Millions of data points will become a searchable picture of insurance recovery across Los Angeles.
3. “A public insurer performance report — EFSN and UCLA will report results insurer by insurer and, where the data supports meaningful comparisons, rank insurers to show where serious problems emerged and which companies served their customers well.”
“If your insurer delayed, denied or underpaid you, say so. If they kept their promises and helped you recover, say that too,” Chen said. “This is our chance as survivors to create the record none of us had when the fires happened. Make sure your experience counts when your insurer’s performance is measured.”
The survey will be available until enough responses are collected for statistically meaningful information for the insurers and groups in the study.
The estimated 15-minute survey addresses underinsurance, smoke damage and the FAIR Plan while skipping questions that don’t apply. The FAIR Plan, or Fair Access to Insurance Requirements is a state-mandated property insurance pool that acts as an insurer of last resort for stakeholders unable to find coverage in the private market.
The survey is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean and asks for one response per household.
Previously, the EFSN has turned more than 2,200 first-hand accounts from LA fire survivors into actionable evidence, according to the group. That evidence led to a lawsuit filed in May against the California Department of Insurance and State Farm and LA County’s recent lawsuit against State Farm, helping unlock more than $100 million in additional payments from the largest insurer operating in California.
