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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: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:19PM (4 children)
This is the very sort of thing that shows humanity's penchant for drama and heroism. And stupidity. Save the homes from the wildfires! Give homage to those brave, brave firefighters! Pity those poor wretches who lost their homes. Not to slang firefighters, but we could be smarter about this stuff.
Why don't people instead build more fire resistant homes? Round off the corners, use more non-flammable materials such as bricks and concrete. Don't build wooden homes in fire prone areas. These are all things that can be done, and without breaking the bank, or compromising on other qualities such as earthquake resistance. While we're at it, how about, don't build homes in flood prone areas either? And stay off those steep, landslide prone hillsides? And, accept that the beach house is toast if a hurricane makes landfall nearby, and if you must have one at all, don't put anything you can't afford to lose there? Besides which, sea level rise may well finish it off for a lot, lot longer than a mere hurricane. Sure, if people were smarter about their dwellings, the 11 o'clock news wouldn't have as much fodder to work with, but that's no loss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:23PM (2 children)
I've heard the safest place to live in terms of natural disasters is actually south africa. But the point is that anywhere you go there will be something that can threaten your home (tornado, hurricanes, wildfire, flooding, earthquake, etc).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:40PM (1 child)
True, but in the Midwest almost every home has a basement to be used as a tornado refuge. In these fire prone areas wouldn't having a huge fire-proof tarp to throw over the house or strategicly placed swim pool or decorative pond (on direction flames would come from) be a wise investment?
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Friday November 30 2018, @01:32AM
Here in Arizona it is common practice for the fire fighters to drop a pump in to any pool in the area of a fire as well as tap the hydrants and use the contents of the trucks on the site. I can't say as I've ever heard of anyone begrudge of the use of their pool water in that manner. I've got a 15,000 gallon pool in the backyard I'd gladly donate the water to saving someone's house.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @10:31PM
You are fundamentally right.
Everybody knows the natural disaster prone areas. The same fucking disasters keep happening in the region since forever--some years granted are worse than others, but it's a well-known risk.
Little sympathy on the property loss. It just is, and was likely to happen in an unstoppable way.
Stop building in areas prone to nasty natural disasters--or just accept the risk. No bailouts.