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 front-page New York Times report revealing that Lara privately struck a deal with insurers allowing them to drop tens of thousands of policyholders ahead of the Los Angeles fires.
The New York Times investigation, based on internal state documents and communications, found that in 2023 Lara struck a secret deal with insurance companies that incentivized them to dump tens of thousands of policyholders in exchange for future rate hikes. The deal was sold to the public as a way to keep people out of the state’s high-cost, low-benefit FAIR Plan, but just the opposite happened. FAIR Plan nearly doubled, and many families lost coverage just months before the Los Angeles fires.
At a press conference in Altadena, survivors point to this and their own experience to say that California now faces two crises: families who can no longer buy or renew insurance, and those who still have coverage but cannot access the benefits they’ve already paid for. Both failures, survivors said, fall under Lara’s leadership – and now sit on the governor’s desk.
Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network and a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, said:
“Families can no longer buy or renew coverage, and those who still have it can’t access the benefits they’ve already paid for. 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.”
A Department of Angels report found that 70 percent of insured Eaton and Palisades survivors face systemic underinsurance and delays and denials blocking their recovery. A second Department of Angels report, released in October 2025, found that more than eight in ten Los Angeles fire survivors remain displaced, with most expected to lose their temporary housing coverage within months. With coverage expiring in real time, families are being forced out of rentals now – a slow-motion disaster unfolding as state leaders fail to act. Survivors described widespread, needless suffering among tens of thousands of Los Angeles fire survivors – families still displaced, underinsured, or denied the benefits they’ve paid for.
Branislav Kecman, an Eaton Fire survivor, said his family paid premiums to State Farm for 12 years before being dropped just months before the fire. The cancellation forced them onto the state’s FAIR Plan, which costs more and covers less.
“That was painful enough,” he said. “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 what began as heartbreak has turned into outrage.
“After the fire, I thought we were protected – we’d paid State Farm for 25 years. 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 secret deal exposed a crisis of leadership that can only be resolved by the Governor.
Survivors warned that Los Angeles stands on the edge of a second catastrophe – one of permanent displacement. Lara has approved billion-dollar rate hikes for the state’s largest insurer, State Farm, while 82 percent of its policyholders report negative claims experiences.
A Los Angeles Times analysis found that five major California wildfires between 2017 and 2020 destroyed 22,500 homes – and by 2025, only 38 percent had been rebuilt. The Times identified insurance as the single biggest factor determining recovery: when insurance paid promptly, families rebuilt; when it didn’t, most never recovered.
The Eaton Fire Survivors Network, representing more than 8,500 Californians, has documented nearly 500 firsthand accounts of insurer misconduct and delivered a five-step enforcement plan to Commissioner Lara.. Every elected official representing the Eaton and Palisades fire zones – including Senators Sasha Renée Pérez and Ben Allen, Assembly members John Harabedian and Jacqui Irwin, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Mayor Karen Bass, and Altadena Town Council President Victoria Knapp – has joined survivors’ call for accountability.
In closing, Chen added: “Let our Los Angeles experience be a warning to every Californian. Our entire housing market will collapse if families can’t buy or renew insurance, and if those who have it can’t get the benefits they’ve paid for. California cannot afford another year of Ricardo Lara. We call on Governor Newsom to act now: urge Commissioner Lara to resign, and install new leadership that enforces the law and rebuilds a functioning insurance market.”