The city’s Chamber of Commerce has announced the launch of a special fund that will provide grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to businesses that suffered losses due to the catastrophic fires that swept across large areas of Los Angeles last week.
The fires damaged or destroyed about 12,000 buildings and resulted in at least 25 fatalities. In addition to financial support, the Chamber will organize webinars on disaster recovery and provide consultations for entrepreneurs.
Bank of America made an initial donation of $500,000 to the fund, also allocating $1 million to the American Red Cross and $500,000 to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Chevron and Ring each contributed $250,000.
The Royal Bank of Canada and the National Bank of Los Angeles have announced a joint contribution of $3 million to aid the victims.
Forecasts indicate a difficult situation as strong winds (up to 112 km/h) and low humidity create a high fire risk for 6.5 million people in the region. According to estimates by private weather service AccuWeather, the total damages from the fires could reach $250–275 billion, making it potentially the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
