London (AFP) – Insurance market Lloyd’s of London on Monday said it had taken a financial hit totalling about $2.3 billion from the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. “We are still assessing the full impact” of the January fires that will affect 2025 results, chief financial officer Burkhard Keese said in a statement.
The fires around the United States’ second city burned for three weeks, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate their homes. They destroyed thousands of structures, devastating the affluent Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles, Malibu, and the community of Altadena in the wider county. Private meteorological firm AccuWeather has estimated the total damage and economic loss at between $250 billion and $275 billion.
Lloyd’s of London published financial results on Monday showing pre-tax profits of $11.4 billion for 2024, slightly less than the previous year. The loss from the fires compares with an estimated hit of some 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) announced by German reinsurance giant Munich Re last month. At the time, it called them the “the most substantial wildfire losses in the history of the insurance industry.”
Munich Re said it was well-prepared to absorb the costs from such natural catastrophes and it would continue to cover wildfires as long as the compensation was appropriate.
© 2024 AFP
