PARADISE, Calif. (AP) 鈥� The letter from the insurance company arrived just before Brian and Morgan Gobba finally finished construction on their new house: Their homeowner鈥檚 policy was being canceled.
The Gobbas were among the first families to return to Paradise and destroyed 90% of the homes here. The house where Morgan grew up burned in the fire. The couple wanted to be part of restoring the town, but the process has been exhausting and expensive.
鈥淎 lot of people don鈥檛 realize that when you rebuild in a burnt-out town, you鈥檙e not starting at ground zero,鈥� said Brian Gobba, who worked as a construction estimator and is now a fire prevention inspector for the town of Paradise. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e starting at negative five or 10, because you need to cut down the trees and get rid of a lot of things that are destroyed or toxic.鈥�
Facing the prospect of not having protection for the home they鈥檇 worked so hard to build, the Gobbas enrolled in the California FAIR plan last year, the state鈥檚 insurer of last resort. Their annual premium is now $6,000.
鈥淲hen you think you鈥檙e slowly gaining money and adding to your safety net and your bank account for your kids and family and future, and all of a sudden, 鈥楬ey, here鈥檚 a bill for $6,000,鈥� it really puts a hole in your heart,鈥� said Gobba.
Households throughout Paradise are confronting an insurability crisis as companies, reeling from unprecedented wildfire losses, in California. But a local foundation is trying to help those families find ways to qualify for and afford private insurance again by giving them money to make their properties more resilient to wildfire.
The Rebuild Paradise Foundation opened applications last month for the Defensible Space Gravel Grant 鈥� a $500 voucher for enough gravel to create a 5-foot-wide buffer around a 2,000 square foot home, protecting the structure from vegetation or other combustible material.
The foundation hopes the vouchers help homeowners qualify for discounts to customers who take certain risk-mitigation actions, including creating defensible space. After years of enduring the financial and emotional strain of rebuilding, many fire survivors may lack the capacity to make modest improvements like this on their own, according to Rebuild Paradise鈥檚 executive director, Jen Goodlin.
鈥淧eople are just maxed out,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he new phase of the rebuild is landscaping, but there鈥檚 no resources to do it.鈥�
Creating defensible space is also a key part of fire safety, according to Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan, director of the National Fire Protection Association鈥檚 Firewise USA program. 鈥淲hen we look at how a wildfire spreads, it鈥檚 not often that big wall of flames that people think of,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the little embers flying through the air.鈥�
Those embers can ignite vegetation, especially if it鈥檚 dry and overgrown. Having space between vegetation and the base of the house can prevent flames and embers from reaching the structure itself.
Many new homes in Paradise haven鈥檛 been landscaped yet, leaving plenty of space for tall weeds to sprout in the spring and become highly flammable in the dry summer months. Gravel perimeters can prevent those weeds from growing, but they can be expensive and labor intensive to establish. The voucher is redeemable at a local rock business and includes delivery. If an applicant can鈥檛 lay the rock themselves, volunteers will come help.
鈥淭his idea of a little bit of funding going a long way is what we hear all the time,鈥� said Fitzgerald-McGowan. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 just that little bit of a leg up, because these costs do add up.鈥�
Rebuild Paradise has doled out nearly $2.3 million since the fire, assisting households with construction costs not covered by FEMA or insurance like replacing septic infrastructure or surveying lots. The foundation was just winding down its largest grant program when, right before the five-year anniversary of the fire, insurance companies .
鈥淚t made everyone a little crazy,鈥� said Goodlin, whose own annual premium went from $2,500 to $12,000. 鈥淲e have new homes built to the highest fire safety measures, yet we鈥檙e getting these astronomical increases.鈥�
Since 2017, California home insurance premiums have gone up an average of 35%. since 2022, saying it鈥檚 become too risky to write policies in the disaster-prone state.
The state鈥檚 insurance department is to appease companies鈥� concerns in exchange for them writing more policies near areas prone to wildfires. Those rules are expected to be finished by the end of the year.
Around 150 families have applied in the five weeks since the grant opened, and Goodlin said some insurance companies have even begun suggesting to their customers that they apply for the grant. The organization has received so much interest that it is pausing new applications while it reorganizes its processes. 鈥淲e knew it would be a very popular grant program, but I don鈥檛 think we actually realized how extreme it would be,鈥� said Goodlin.
The foundation aims to help 1,000 families, but it will have to raise more funds to do so, which means Goodlin herself is in the process of applying for grants to expand the program. She said she鈥檚 even reached out to some of the insurance companies themselves for donations, though none have responded.
Brian Gobba applied for the grant as soon as it opened. The Rebuild Paradise Foundation had already helped him with the costs of surveying and installing a new septic system.
Without that kind of assistance, Gobba said many of his neighbors would not have been able to return to Paradise. 鈥淭he help of the grant money in all its little forms, it鈥檚 helping people get back to the ridge.鈥�
A Marine who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gobba knows how important being with people who have gone through similar experiences can be in overcoming trauma. 鈥淭he people that have moved back after the fire have each other to lean on,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really good for the healing process.鈥�
The gravel should be delivered this week. Gobba hopes that creating defensible space will not only allow them to landscape in a fire-safe way, but to also get off the FAIR plan. 鈥淢aybe somehow we could get our premiums and our yearly costs to go down,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t felt like it was grasping at straws, but we had to try.鈥�
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Gabriela Aoun Angueira, The Associated Press
