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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday November 29 2018, @05:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-seller's-market dept.

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


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 30 2018, @09:28PM

    by edIII (791) on Friday November 30 2018, @09:28PM (#768469)

    Uhhh, no, because they're fucking dipshits according to you.

    Not sure what you are saying either. They can cut off the fire off weeks ahead of time? Do they have Miss Cleo on the payroll? Or are you talking about proactive behavior to reduce the availability of fuel, create fire breaks where possible, and take the necessary steps to make sure our forests get the water they need (Kick Nestle out)? First there is a fire, and then somehow there is a clear path it will take? Really? Right there you are full of it. Nobody is predicting in advance how a fire will move, because almost nobody can predict the winds in advance.

    Proactive steps make sense, and I already said that private companies that can meet the certifications (they have proper training) should be able to be hired by the state, to be MANAGED by the state in performing prescribed burns in our forests. That is what happens "years" ahead of the possible fire.

    During reactive situations, in which your "weeks/months/years" makes zero sense, private companies should be forced by law to be cooperating with the public agencies handling the catastrophe. There are no proactive measures possible during these events, not ones that can happen within hours, or the minutes required. Containment means giving up properties, which goes against the goals of the private companies, but is chosen because those properties have ZERO chance.

    You and the others are actually quite cute with your insistence that private efforts could somehow trump public ones, and they could've saved Paradise. Get this through your head; Paradise was doomed the second the fire started.

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