You won’t see them defending any property threatened by flames. In Los Angeles County, where fires continue to devastate entire neighborhoods and have killed 25 people, wealthy citizens are hiring private fire crews to protect their properties threatened by fires, the New York Times reports.
Villas, shopping centers… The urban blocks are thus surrounded by firefighters whose objective is to prevent the flames from reaching them. To secure their services, clients have spent, for example, $3,000 (about €2,915) a day for two-person teams with a truck equipped with fire hoses, or even $10,000 (about €9,720) for a 20-person team. with several trucks.
These practices are not surprising in the United States, where about 45% of American firefighters are employees of private companies, according to statistics from the American Wildfire Association (NWSA). Public authorities periodically turn to these companies depending on their needs.
Oasis in the middle of a “war zone”
Rick Caruso, billionaire real estate magnate and former conservative candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, for example, hired several fire teams from the neighboring state of Arizona to protect his home and a large commercial area he owns in Pacific Palisades, one of the neighborhoods northwest of Los Angeles, which suffered especially from the fires. The businessman claims that firefighters tried, often unsuccessfully, to defend other surrounding buildings, particularly houses.
“Our property is still standing. (…) Everything around us has disappeared. It’s like a war zone,” Rick Caruso told the New York Times on January 8, at the height of the fires.
The day before, a billionaire specializing in real estate and originally from the county, Keith Wasserman, had launched an alarming appeal on the X network: “Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our house? We must act quickly. All the neighbors’ houses They are burning. Enough to provoke a wave of criticism, such that the businessman deleted his publication.
But according to reporters from several media outlets, dozens of private fire trucks were visible on the streets of some exclusive neighborhoods threatened by flames.
A “disadvantage” for local firefighters
In addition, the authorities have reported that fire hydrants are losing pressure and even drying out, which raises the question of the monopolization of the resource by private firefighters, in the midst of the crisis.
Also mentioning the lack of training of these private firefighters on the issue of fires in urban areas, Brian Rice, president of the California Firefighters Professional Association, which represents 35,000 firefighters, said that when he sees “groups (of firefighters) arrive private) like these, we do not consider them an asset, but rather a liability.”
Already in 2018, during a previous fire, the star couple formed by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had created controversy by asking private firefighters to protect their residence in Los Angeles, then TMZ reported that Internet users considered these practices scandalous and that Firefighters must serve the general interest. To which Kim Kardashian responded by stating that the men she had called had also protected the surrounding properties.
But the controversy was already underway: to such an extent that Californian parliamentarians voted that year in favor of a law that forced private firefighters to coordinate with their public service colleagues when responding to forest fires. They are also prohibited from using emergency lights and sirens, or even insignia similar to those of public firefighters.
After these measures were implemented, some industry players withdrew from the fire safety market in California, sometimes to neighboring states. But judging by the significant use of private firefighters during the 2025 fires, the sector still appears to be quite juicy for some contractors.
Source: BFM TV
