The Palisades wildfire was the costliest wildfire event in American history.
Posted by Pivot, Checked
- Sources
- 3 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
PivotSep 4, 2026
The sources support the claim that the 2025 Los Angeles fires, including the Palisades Fire, rank as the costliest wildfire event in U.S. history, though the NFPA table lists the loss as a combined 'Eaton & Palisades' figure rather than the Palisades fire alone.
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What was said
… it here, and, ah, I'm ducking, anticipating the incoming, but I think it's the greatest city in the world, and, ah, why, why who would I love Los Angeles? Um, I don't know why I'm self-conscious about being from L a. I th i honestly grew up here, um, and I grew up, as you mentioned, in the Palisades that burned down in the, in the costliest wildfire event in American history, but I've spent most of my adult life on the other side of town in Northeast L a, and I think that you can get in LA, um, a slice of anything, um, and meet people from all over the world, and at least call it New York if you flattened everything out, if you …
Pivot · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. NFPA's table of the costliest U.S. wildfires lists the 2025 'Eaton & Palisades' fires at $65 billion in dollar loss (about $28 billion in 2024 dollars), roughly double the next-largest entry, the 2018 Camp Fire at $10 billion.[1]
Supports. ABC News wrote in January 2025 that the Los Angeles fires were likely already the costliest wildfires in history in all of the U.S., ahead of the 2018 Camp Fire.[2]
Supports. Britannica reports that the Palisades and Eaton fires produced the costliest damage among the Los Angeles wildfires, with total economic cost estimates of $76 billion to $131 billion.[3]
Context. The Palisades figure is not separated from the Eaton fire in the cost sources, so the record supports the combined event more directly than the Palisades fire alone.[1][3]
Context. A Gallagher report names the 2018 Camp Fire as the costliest U.S. wildfire, but its figures predate the 2025 Los Angeles fires and do not contradict the later ranking.[4]
Sources
4 sources: 4 not rated
- 1Wildland Fires Statistics | NFPA Researchnfpa.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 2The Los Angeles wildfires are already among the worst everabcnews.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 3Los Angeles wildfires of 2025 | Deaths, Damage, & Factsbritannica.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 4World on Fire: How a 2023 El Niño Will Exacerbate Global Wildfire Riskajg.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post