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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: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:06PM (3 children)
As I already said: I just saw the Woolsey fire go by, on top of the mountain in front of my house.
I know people whose house burnt, and people whose houses were only spared because of firemen and luck.
I even know people without fire insurance, whose house burnt.
Gladly we only got a couple deaths, unlike the Paradise-under-the-flammable-trees guys, and that's because the firemen focused on the living, not your supreme offense of "letting people's houses burn" (which reduces the state's income more than a few deaths).
When the wind gusts above 40MPH for three days and nights, you can put a thousand more guys on the ground, on rocky hilly terrain like Westlake and Malibu the fire is pretty much gonna go where it's gonna go, jumping arbitrary distances over highways and lakes, and the horizontal smoke is gonna move both private and public firemen out of its way, and houses with good clearance and luck maybe will still stand, while random others will just be reduced to a chimney. The only thing that really stopped the Santa-Ana-stoked fire was the ocean, like during he Springs fire 5 years ago.
The mercenaries who stand to make money are happy to use our tragedy to advertise their services. Don't join them in assholery.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:51PM
About as useful as asking a pig not to eat shit...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 30 2018, @12:25AM
Except when it doesn't, of course. Fire breaks like anything humans make aren't intended to be perfect.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday December 01 2018, @12:09PM
And if people are happy to pay for and receive their services, what on earth makes you think you have any justification to shit on them?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.