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: 1) by khallow on Friday November 30 2018, @12:11AM (3 children)
Because it's California's responsibility to make sure those other parties do their job too.
(Score: 3, Informative) by archfeld on Friday November 30 2018, @01:10AM (1 child)
While I can't argue that California is the most affected, how do you as a State force the Federal government to do anything ? It would be awesome if you could figure a way to force congress to do something, actually anything would be a novelty. The only thing they seem to do regardless of which party is in charge is filibuster or grandstand issuing bills that are never going get out of committee.
Also California is not the only state affected. Washington and Oregon also suffered heavily this year from fires that occurred in or on federal land or national forests.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 30 2018, @02:25PM
The same way any bureaucracy prods another: communication, money, and courts. But it has to be important enough to the bureaucracy that someone does it.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 30 2018, @04:37AM
Touche! Hard to argue with that one there :)
Don't let the Feds off the hook though. Stick it to them as hard as you are sticking to the individual states.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.