SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
With California experiencing two years of unprecedented wildfires that have left more than 20,000 homes destroyed and scores dead, the private firefighting business is booming. These brigades work independently from county firefighters; their job is to protect specific homes under contract with insurance companies.
Their work can vary from pushing back flames as they approach properties to reaching the site before the blaze arrives and spraying homes with fire retardant.
But the private forces have generated complaints from some fire departments, who say they don't always coordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze.
"From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed. They're viewed as a responsibility," said Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union representing rank-and-file firefighters in the state.
What began more than a decade ago as a white-glove service for homeowners in well-to-do neighborhoods has expanded in recent years as the wildfire danger has increased, said Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the insurance industry.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-private-firefighters-20181127-story.html
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @06:42PM (7 children)
...because any javascript dev can be a java dev as well, amirite?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @06:58PM
This is literally exactly their jobs. Some even work in the exact same areas during the summer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday November 29 2018, @07:11PM (2 children)
If they're competent at programming, then yes, the programming language choice does not matter much. Same goes for firefighting. If they've fought wildfires before, then the differences between those terrains and California's terrains won't matter much.
(Score: 1) by deimtee on Friday November 30 2018, @12:45AM (1 child)
Not quite the same. Forest fire behaviors do vary according to location, and fucking up means people die, not a syntax error.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 30 2018, @01:06AM
That's why you brief the fire fighters beforehand. It's not rocket science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:12PM (2 children)
"when every year there are also a bunch of fires in California without enough firefighters."
You seem to have missed the point. Those seasonal workers would be better put to use elsewhere in the country instead of going on unemployment. It wasn't quite the "git a job varmint!" post you seem to think it was.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:21PM (1 child)
How did I miss the point of my own post? That info comes from my friend who does this job. He was literally laid off in california wishing he could help fight the fires. The government simply does not want to fund a proper firefighting force (for whatever government reasons), they prefer to let the houses burn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @10:03PM
Sadly, happens all the time. For instance, read a post by khallow. We have rampant Dunning-Kroeger effects infesting the SoylentNews.