Pro vs. Private Firefighters: 'We Consider Them a Liability'

As the Palisades Fire raged last week, wealthy local entrepreneur Keith Wasserman put out a tweet he's come to regret. "Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home?" he posted in the since-deleted tweet. "Need to act fast here. All neighbors houses burning. Will pay any amount." Blowback to that plea, with many calling it tone deaf, prompted Wasserman to delete it, but it has brought to the forefront the topic of what the New York Times calls a "coveted resource" in fire-prone Southern California: private fire crews, standing guard over homes and businesses they were hired to protect by private citizens, insurance firms, or the government.

• Who's hiring: About 45% of American firefighters work privately, says Deborah Miley, executive director of the National Wildfire Suppression Association. Wealthy clients do indeed recruit these private firefighters—as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West took flak for doing during the 2018 Woolsey Fire—but David Torgerson of Wildfire Defense Systems tells the Los Angeles Times that rich clients are just a small sector of who recruits from the private firms. "Contract firefighters who are hired by the government are the vast majority," he says. Insurance firms also tap into this market, as it's often cheaper to tack such protection onto home insurance policies rather than pay out large sums for destroyed properties.

• Pretreatment: The private squads often take preventive measures before fire even gets close to a home, doing what's called "fire hardening," per the New York Times. That involves everything from getting rid of too much vegetation, spraying fire retardant on trees and other structures, and sealing vents with fireproof tape.
• Cost: Citing the Daily Mail, the New York Post reports that homeowners could shell out up to $2,000 an hour for such services. An executive at a private firefighting company in Oregon tells the New York Times it could cost up to $3,000 a day to hire a small truck with two firefighters; four trucks with 20 firefighters will run you about $10,000 per day.
• Pay: Meanwhile, a firefighter with a private company says that although pay can vary with the client, he figures he makes around $20 an hour on average, per the Los Angeles Times. The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, says the "going rate" for private firefighters is more like $70 an hour, not counting food and accommodations.
• Tensions: Other California firefighters aren't always pleased with the private firefighters swooping in. "We don't consider them an asset—we consider them a liability," Brian Rice, president of California Professional Firefighters, tells the New York Times, noting that "the private contract companies are not trained or equipped to operate" in more urban environments like Los Angeles. Other critics accuse the private crews of depleting public fire hydrants that are used by city, county, and state firefighters, though many private firefighters say they either bring their own water or use other methods, like drawing water from clients' swimming pools.

(More firefighters stories.)