L.A. Private Firefighting Is Controversial But Often Misunderstood

Since the Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted on Jan. 7 — two of the biggest and most destructive in California’s history — the deployment of private firefighters has again become a politicized talking point. Such concierge-style protection first gained public notice after the Woolsey blaze in 2018, when TMZ reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had hired a private team to help save their Hidden Hills compound.

This time, discourse flames were renewed by a wealthy Palisades resident’s online post inquiring about such services: “Does anyone have access to private firefighters?” he wrote. “Will pay any amount.” (He received so much blowback that he deactivated account.) Meanwhile, the billionaire real estate developer and former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso’s successfully utilized a private team to protect his Palisades Village shopping complex even as the immediate neighborhood around it was reduced to rubble.

But the reality of private firefighting is more complicated — and perhaps at least somewhat less contentious. Most of this private sector’s portfolio isn’t with private property owners. Instead, it’s either utility companies whose infrastructure requires careful upkeep (recall that it was a PG&E transmission line that caused the 2018 Camp Fire, resulting in 85 deaths and bankrupting that firm); major insurers like AIG and Chubb, who offer mitigation services to their policyholders; and government jurisdictions supplementing their fire departments, or lack thereof.

Much of the work is preventative: the digging of fire breaks, installation of a sprinkler systems, and introduction of fire-retardant gels. According to The New York Times, fire crews can cost between $3,000 and $10,000 a day. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the going rate per private firefighter is about $70 per hour, not including food and lodging.

More than anything, these firefighters are keen to make it clear that they aren’t rogue actors when involved in a wildfire effort on behalf of their client, including private property owners — especially since their public-sector colleagues have in the past expressed wariness about their participation. “From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed,” Carroll Wills, a spokesperson for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union, told the Los Angeles Times after the Woolsey fire. “They’re viewed as a responsibility.”

“We operate within guidelines established by the state and federal regulations under the direction of and inclusion in the fire incident command system,” explains Robert MacKenzie, fire chief at Escondido, California-based Capstone, which currently has 30 wildfire engines deployed throughout Southern California.

Adds Tom Wesley, who runs Mountaineers Fire Crew out of Redding, California, and has sent a substantial number of personnel downstate to assist with the ongoing infernos: “If Jim or Jill landowner is requesting us, we’re operating out of the base camp, with a tracking system on our engine to communicate with the [municipal] commander.”