'With 5 simultaneous blazes, LA 'fire nightmare' continues'It is simply terrible. Tens of thousands of hopes, dreams and livelihoods have vanished into thin air. As in Florida, insurance companies are pulling out of California, meaning that many homeowners no longer have fire insurance and are therefore left alone with the damage. This is why many have tried desperately, often unsuccessfully, to save their homes themselves. It will get even worse when people start to seriously look into the causes, because the culprit or culprits will probably not even exist. There are a whole series of factors that made the extent of the damage possible. It starts with the construction method. One example are the once iconic beach houses in Malibu, which have now largely burned down. Unlike in Germany, housing in the US is often not built to last forever, but instead uses lightweight construction (timber frame construction and lots of plasterboard). There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it is a cost factor, and Americans move more often. If you are only in one place for 10 to 20 years, you don't build for a lot of money. These are the very houses that burned down completely, while many houses built in "European style" (concrete and stone) show repairable damage. #LosAngelesFires