Tyler Perry is slamming insurance companies for making policy changes before the deadly Los Angeles wildfires.
“Watching a daughter use a garden hose to try and protect her 90-year-old parents’ home because their insurance was canceled was just gut-wrenching to me,” the filmmaker, 55, wrote in a statement via Instagram on Sunday.
Perry continued, “Does anyone else find it appalling that insurance companies can take billions of dollars out of communities for years and then, all of a sudden, be allowed to cancel millions of policies for the very people they became rich on?”
“People who have paid premiums all of their lives are left with nothing because of pure greed,” he added.
Perry concluded his message by writing, “As I am in the process of trying to figure out what steps to take to do all I can to help as many as I can, I am keeping everyone in my prayers.”
Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area have lost their homes due to the devastating wildfires.
According to the LA Times, State Farm General announced in March 2024 that it would not renew 30,000 homeowner and condominium policies — including 1,262 in Pacific Palisades, the area hit hardest by the fires.
Chubb Insurance reportedly stopped writing policies for high-value homes with higher wildfire risk in 2021.
Allstate, Tokio Marine America Insurance Co. and Trans Pacific Insurance Co. similarly made policy changes in California before the 2025 wildfires, per the LA Times.
It’s been estimated by AccuWeather that the fires have caused between $135 billion and $150 billion in damages to LA.
The destruction of homes, schools, businesses and infrastructure, the long-term cost of rebuilding and relocating, cleanup and recovery costs, emergency shelter and health care are piling up as the fires continue.
JP Morgan analysts predicted insured losses of $20 billion and estimated that uninsured losses could soar to well over $100 billion.
That would make the LA fires the most expensive in US history — equal to nearly 4% of California’s annual GDP.
Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, Anthony Hopkins, Tina Knowles, Miles Teller, Candy Spelling and Mel Gibson have had their homes destroyed by the fires.
The death toll has risen to 24 people, as of an update from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Sunday evening.
16 people were killed in the Eaton Fire, while eight were killed by the Palisades Fire — the two largest of the fires devouring the county.