Ricardo Lara, the California Insurance Commissioner, is in hot water in Sacramento for attending the Bermuda Risk Summit last week, instead of the first hearings of the year for lawmakers in the state senate.

Legislators are facing an insurance crisis precipitated in part by the devastating and expensive Los Angeles wildfires as questions linger around the future of insurance in California.

Mr Lara joined Bermuda Monetary Authority CEO Craig Swan and state commissioners from Florida, Utah, Louisiana and Connecticut, and a host of other industry luminaries at the high-level summit.

But back home, TV station KCRA 3 said it made it impossible for Mr Lara to testify at the state senate on Wednesday, the first hearing into the state’s insurance crisis arising out of the wildfires.

The meeting heard from two officials with the Department of Insurance, who testified on Lara's behalf on Wednesday. But the hearings did not last long.

Major insurers began pulling out of the state over the past two years and it was reported that the California legislature and the Governor, Gavin Newsom, allowed the insurance commissioner to handle the state's insurance problems mostly on his own.

A spokesman for Lara told KCRA 3 that the commissioner plans to testify in person at an Assembly Insurance Committee hearing on March 19.

The San Joaquin Valley Sun said that while at the Bermuda Risk Summit, Mr Lara reported that the Los Angeles area wildfires caused between $28 billion and $53 billion in insured damage.

The Sun said Mr Lara reportedly said: “When we talk about what we can do, mitigation, mitigation, mitigation is key.

“Hardening homes reduces losses and we know it enhances availability and affordability. It lowers insurance costs and builds confidence among insurers. It contributes to sustainability in our markets.”

During the question-and-answer portion of his panel discussion, Mr Lara said his office had finally passed wildfire risk modelling regulations.

“For the first time,” he said, “our department in California will be able to use catastrophe modelling to understand this risk, as you all have been doing for years.”

The wildfires around Los Angeles in January caused an estimated $250 billion in damage.

The Los Angeles Conservancy also reported that more than 30 culturally and historically significant properties were destroyed in the disaster, along with more than 30 significant works by American visual art icon Andy Warhol.