Los Angeles: Private Firefighters to Save the Homes of the Wealthy
As wildfires engulf the city of Los Angeles, a new financial disparity emerges, highlighting the contrast between impoverished neighborhoods and streets lined with luxurious mansions.
A report by the Daily Mail reveals that the city’s wealthy are hiring private firefighters, who charge hefty fees, to protect their properties from the flames, even if it means letting their neighbors’ belongings burn to the ground.
Public opinion has grown increasingly critical of the wealthy and the private firefighters they employ, as the destruction in Los Angeles continues.
While these private companies usually work with local governments and insurance companies, desperate affluent homeowners in Los Angeles have started contacting them directly.
A private firefighting team of two people, using a small vehicle, costs about $3,000 per day. A larger team of twenty can charge up to $10,000 per day.
The report notes that Americans have long endured the consequences of extreme income inequality, but the notion that the wealthy can save their mansions at the expense of others has finally tested their patience.
Firefighting companies claim to complement overstretched government resources. Chris Dunn, owner of the private firefighting company Covered 6, told the Daily Mail that his phone has been ringing nonstop with requests for assistance.
Wealthy clients, often equipped with massive swimming pools, rely on these water reserves for firefighting efforts. While private companies insist they bring their own water or use clients’ pools instead of public water supplies, critics question how they will manage if these resources run out.
Some private firefighting companies have admitted that, if necessary, they would use fire hydrants or other water sources such as lakes and ponds, which public firefighters also rely on.
The report highlights that these companies first gained public attention in the United States in 2018 when one of them helped save rapper Kanye West’s and his then-wife Kim Kardashian’s mansion, valued at £50 million, from the Woolsey wildfire that year.
