
Lottery winner's house is one of thousands of homes decimated by horrific fires
By Kate Northrop
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — $2 billion Powerball lottery winner Edwin Castro's $3.8 million Malibu home was one of the many homes flattened in the Palisades Fire disaster that has been ravaging Los Angeles County since Tuesday.
The ongoing Palisades Fire has utterly decimated residential areas in Los Angeles County, erasing more than 10,000 homes and other structures. One of those homes is a $3.8 million Malibu mansion belonging to $2 billion Powerball jackpot winner Edwin Castro.
Photos of the aftermath are similar to the hundreds — if not thousands — of others circulating online, showing nothing but concrete, ash, and debris left behind in the fire's wake.
The house was one of several properties that Castro bought shortly after his world-record win in November 2022, having purchased it in 2023. The 3-bedroom 2-bath home sat directly on Big Rock Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the Pacific Coast Highway.
The other neighboring properties lining the entirety of the beach saw the same fate — what was once a scenic coastline of houses perched next to each other is now an empty, rubble-lined beach.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), more than 21,000 acres have been burned through by the fire, 8% of which is contained by crews. 3% of the nearby Eaton Fire in the Altadena and Pasadena areas, which destroyed nearly 14,000 acres, is contained. Containment refers to the perimeters that firefighters are able to establish to prevent the blaze from spreading.
In its latest update, CAL FIRE also advised that there is a high chance of strong winds on Tuesday, and as such, there will "continue to be a high likelihood of critical fire weather conditions through next week."
For critical information on evacuation warnings and orders, safety precautions, shelters, and road closures, please visit the official CAL FIRE government website.
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Thanks to Steph A. for the tip.
life in commie fornia .... hope no one was hurt or killed
It happens to everyone. So sad.
His Hollywood hills home, the one built on a steep incline and with a neighbor home destroyed recently in a mudslide, appears to have survived.
With more than a billion dollars in reserve, he's covered financially.
The fire control mismanagement in LA has hit the news, and its really bad. Hard to imagine a worse foul up.
I thought about him.
Wonder will there be new bldg restrictions
So sad.
All the insurance claims going on right now, I can only imagine the cost and the probability of some of them going under.
what a shame if I had all that money why stay in calfornia I whould leave
Love California. Been there a few times. Beautiful state! Prayers going out to the family's who lost their homes! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾❤️
I live in California and the fires are horrible, whole neighborhoods gone. Some insurance companies canceled policies recently. Our largest school district LAUSD, closed schools Friday due to the smoke & ashes. We live 35 miles south of the fires and can smell the fire as well as ashes on our car. Other states Nevada & countries...Canada & Mexico have sent firefighters & planes to assist.
Hope the fires are under control soon.
Many don't have homeowners insurance.
Several insurance companies dropped their homeowners insurance clients in California in late summer with State Farm dropping them in March 2024 citing inflation. I know there were other reasons BUT it's horrible that companies did that! Some homeowners said they were dropped as recently as September 2024.... This entire situation is heartbreaking 💔
It's terrible and you can't recover a lot of things that was destroyed..But as far as living arrangements they're all going to be taken care of from donations and funds...Like everyone no one would wish that on others...
Insurance companies are like a person that lends you an umbrella and takes it from you the moment it starts to rain ☔
You aint seen nuthin' yet.
Many wildfire victims that still have homeowners insurance have yet to file a claim with their insurance company, and they're about to find out something. Those victims are about to find out that their insurance company is going to deny their claim or they'll pay out pennies on the dollar to the victims.
When Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida in September of 2022, many homeowners found out the hard way that while they thought they had insurance, they really didn't. To this day lots of homeowners with roof damage to their home have banned together and are suing insurance companies with a class action lawsuit. Riding around Fort Myers, you can still see hundreds of houses with bright blue tarps on the roof. The roofs haven't been fixed yet because it's very hard to get a roofer to come and fix it, and even if you could get a roofer, roof shingles are in very short supply. And of course, a roofer will want to know that you have the money to fix the roof before he starts working on it because he knows most peoples insurance company walked away from the homeowners.
For their part, insurance companies don't even have that much money to pay all of the claims. So in Florida, there is an "insurance crisis" too. Lots of insurance companies have sent letters to their customers saying "due to the hurricane risk", they're dropping the customer and have pulled out of the state.
You can still buy homeowners insurance in Florida, but it will cost you an arm and a leg. And of course there is also the state run Citizens ("carrier of last resort") which you absolutely do not want buy insurance from.
Yeah it's a mess in Florida. And if you live in Pacific Palisades California, it's coming to a home near you. G5
It's hard for me to feel sorry for Edwin Castro. He's what insurance companies call "Self insured" meaning he's got enough money to pay to have his house rebuilt all by himself. Most wildfire victims aren't in the same boat as Ed.
They have mortgages and the bank that holds that mortgage required them to buy homeowners insurance naming them as the "loss payee".
Ed aint sweatin' it right now. But most of his neighbors are. Lucky them. NOT! G5