Rows of cars at a dealership, blasted by flames, looked like they had been bombed. A man wearing a mask walked by debris of a neighborhood destroyed. A couple, arms around each other, looked at what was left of their smoldering home. A statue of a human, without a head, lay on a street.

Key Takeaways The wildfires that have decimated neighborhoods in Los Angeles this week came just months after California's largest property insurer began allowing thousands of policies to lapse.Insurers,