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Now that the extraordinarily fast-moving wildfires that engulfed swaths of Southern California this year have started to die down, the enduring toll is beginning to emerge.

The blazes killed 29 people and destroyed at least 16,000 structures, including homes, offices, shops, and public infrastructure. Angelinos are starting to get back to survey the damage, but it may be weeks before they can start rebuilding as cleanup crews first work to clear toxic debris. The destruction of some of the state’s most expensive mansions in communities like Pacific Palisades received much of the attention, but the fires also displaced people in predominantly middle- and working-class areas like Altadena and Pasadena, where the Eaton Fire burned through 9,400 buildings.

“It’s not just a rich person’s disaster,” said Adam Rose, a professor at the University of California studying the economic impacts of disruptions like wildfires.

Verisk, a risk analysis firm, calculated that property losses to the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire covered by insurance would total between $28 billion and $35 billion. CoreLogic, a property analytics company, put that bill between $35 billion and $45 billion. The 2018 Camp Fre that burned down Paradise, California, the state’s deadliest wildfire, racked up $12.5 billion in insured losses.

But insured properties weren’t the only things lost to the flames. Morgan Stanley estimated that the fires would lead to 20,000 to 40,000 lost jobs in January and will increase local inflation as people try to replace what they’ve lost. AccuWeather estimated that the total damage plus broader economic losses would add up somewhere between $250 billion and $275 billion. That would make it the costliest disaster in US history, more than the $200 billion total bill from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

That raises the question: Who is going to pay for all of this?

Safeguards like insurance can help contain the costs, and provide the funds to rebuild. But that isn’t free, and when disasters reach such extraordinary scales, it’s not just the scorched community that pays — we all do. Through higher prices for goods, as well as rising insurance rates and taxes, the burden of the blazes, directly and indirectly, reaches far beyond the edges of their smoke and ash.

Disasters are getting more costly. That’s stressing our financial guardrails.

Across the country, population growth, the economy, and climate change have been on a collision course: More people are moving to areas vulnerable to burning, flooding, or drying out, putting more people (and their property) in harm’s way. Because of inflation and economic growth, the cost of rebuilding is rising. And as the climate changes, extreme events like hurricanes and wildfires are becoming more destructive. So when a disaster does occur, its price tag adds up to a gargantuan number.

Many of the residents who lost their homes and fled the fires are paying out of pocket if they can afford it, or turning to relief aid if they can’t. A GoFundMe spokesperson told Vox that donors have contributed more than $200 million through its fundraising platform to individuals and nonprofits for wildfire relief efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also approved more than $52 million for emergency housing assistance and other needs.

Normally, a community impacted by a major natural disaster could rely on aid from the federal government, too. But President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to impose policy

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