After the CZU Lightning Complex Fires ripped through the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2020, Sarah Mapel’s home was one of the few in her Boulder Creek, California, neighborhood left standing. But after returning to the three-bedroom house built out of old-growth redwood, Mapel found wildfire smoke had inundated the interior and ruined most of her belongings.
“I got back to my home after the evacuation order was lifted and it was just rancid from the smoke inside,” Mapel said. “You could just see the particulate in the air, and everything was covered in ash and soot. It smelled awful, like nauseating.”
When Mapel tried to file an insurance claim through her insurance provider — the California FAIR Plan — she said her policy wouldn’t cover it because there was no “physical change” to her home. She said the total cost of damage and expenses came to over $200,000.
