California approves State Farm’s request for emergency rate hike after spending billions on LA fires

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara gave the green light to State Farm‘s emergency request to hike rates after the company suffered billions of dollars in losses due to the fires that devastated Los Angeles earlier this year.

State Farm covers 20% of the area affected by the fires that ripped across Los Angeles in January, which it said ranked among “the costliest disasters in the history of State Farm.” The insurance company said that as of May 12, it has paid out more than $3.51 billion in losses while processing 12,692 claims.