A free guide from the California Wildfire Recovery Center
The California Wildfire Recovery Handbook
A calm, practical, step by step guide to the weeks and months after a wildfire: safe re-entry, your insurance claim, documenting losses, government aid, housing and money, health and family, rebuilding, and how to tell whether litigation applies to your fire.
Contents
The First 72 Hours
Safe re-entry, the people to call first, and the small actions in the first three days that protect your health, your family, and your future claim.
02Your Insurance Claim, Start to Finish
How a California homeowner claim actually works, from the first call to your adjuster through advance payments, your contents list, and what to do when you disagree.
03Documenting Everything: Your Loss Inventory
How to rebuild proof of what you owned and lost, room by room, so your claim reflects the full value of your home and belongings.
04FEMA, Cal OES, and Disaster Aid
What federal and state disaster programs do, who they are for, how to apply, and how they fit alongside your insurance.
05Housing, Money, and Staying Afloat
Temporary housing, additional living expenses, mortgage and bill relief, and the practical money moves that buy you time and breathing room.
06Health, Mental Health, and Your Family
Smoke and ash exposure, returning safely, and caring for the emotional weight a fire leaves on adults, children, and pets.
07Rebuilding or Relocating
Permits, contractors, underinsurance, and avoiding the fraud that follows disasters, whether you rebuild on your lot or move on.
08Understanding Wildfire Litigation
What a wildfire lawsuit is, how responsibility is decided in California, and how to tell, honestly, whether legal action might apply to your fire.
Reference
Glossary of Terms
Plain-language definitions of the insurance, disaster-aid, rebuilding, and legal words you will meet while you recover.
The Handbook Illustrations
Every line drawing in this handbook, what it shows, and the chapter it belongs to, drawn in one steady hand.
This handbook is general recovery information for people affected by California wildfires. It is not legal, medical, financial, or insurance advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Program rules and deadlines change and depend on facts specific to you. Confirm anything that affects a decision with the agency, your insurer, or a licensed professional before you act on it.