Stamp Collections Lost In The Southern California Fires

I hope this topic is not too morbid or ghoulish for the forum. I live in Southern California so am more acutely aware of the fires than perhaps some other forum members. Although, luckily I live far enough away, I was able to see actual flames while standing on my front lawn a few nights ago (fire was about 10 miles away). At present the two biggest fires, the Palisades and the Eaton fires are still burning and between them have destroyed several thousand homes. This is of course tragic and my heart aches for the owners who have been displaced, and I suspect that almost everyone in SoCal is no more than one or two degrees of separation from someone who was affected. I myself have a friend with a family member who lost their home. The Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades is an upscale area with a demographic skewed to older residents, so I imagine that it is more likely than not that some of the people whose houses were lost were stamp collectors and in the rush to escape with whatever you could quickly gather up and carry it is likely that some treasures were inevitably lost. So, I wonder, given the widespread nature of people on this forum, does anyone know specifically of any collectors in the burn areas who may have been affected? I certainly give my wholehearted sympathy and condolences for their loss.

From what I can tell from those I know who lost everything, they're still in raw shock and aren't going to talk about any specific items lost, only their anger at God, nature, and incompetent government, as well as the difficulty of finding the motivation to return to work, and the frustration of facing likely five years to rebuild. It's certainly changed their relationship to material possessions and prompted discussions about what is the point of life and whether their rulers ought to be overthrown or whether the replacements would be just as awful, so ultimately you're on your own.

I heard a rumor that the best pieces of a major collection were in a bank vault in the Palisades burn area.

Sad to see both the massive destruction and devastation.

I live in Southern California, but quite a distance from the fires, so no worries for my property. My biggest worries are my friends and some family closer to the fires, and what my next insurance premium is going to shoot up to. Probably matching the Florida rates in a year or two. The entire insurance system is going to need a fix.

I was just paying the annual premium on my APS / Hugh Wood stamp insurance, and was curious whether wildfires are excluded from coverage. I didn't see an exclusion - just the usual war, nuclear radiation, etc. There is a paragraph for "Climatic Conditions" excluding loss or damage due to "climatic or atmospheric conditions or extremes of temperature" but that that clause does not apply if the loss or damage "is directly caused by fire or water damage." There is an exclusion for earthquakes in the state of California.

I lived in a CA town affected by one of the earlier big fires and 2 members of our local club lost their collections. One restarted his collection. The other did not and his adult daughter was so affected she was unable to go outdoors. Although my neighborhood was not burned, it certainly was terrifying being awakened in the middle of the night and seeing the entire north sky glowing red-orange and a couple of spots to the south. A few days later I evacuated for 3 days. Its one of the reasons I moved.