Three Cheers for Private Firefighters

While I have a few opinions related to fires and natural disasters (government firefighters are usually overpaid, FEMA shouldn’t exist, etc), I’m not going to comment on how government officials in California have handled the fire.

Simply stated, I suspect incompetence and bad policy played a role, but I don’t have any expertise or special knowledge.

But there’s one issue that’s in my libertarian bailiwick, and that’s whether it is good or bad for some property owners to contract with private firefighters.

I wrote about a related issue more than 10 years ago, noting that hundreds of communities in America rely of private firefighting companies, as well as many towns in Denmark.

That doesn’t seem to be overly controversial. But, as illustrated by this tweet, some crazy people get upset when individual property owners use private fire services.

Some of our friends on the left apparently get very upset when houses don’t burn down based on social justice criteria, such as income.

I’m not joking. Here are some excerpts from an article in the New York Times.

…some property owners did not rely on the public agencies, turning instead to private firefighters…who have become a coveted resource in some of Southern California’s most wealthy — and most fire-threatened — communities. …The extent of the role private firefighters played in protecting certain businesses and homes in the Palisades is still emerging. But during drives around the community since the fire struck, their presence has been evident…teams of private firefighters riding in white pickup trucks were on the scene as well, keeping watch on individual homes. …The business of private firefighting burst into public view in 2018, after TMZ reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had hired private firefighters to protect their mansion in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hidden Hills… Online, some people criticized the couple, saying they were using their vast wealth to undermine what should be a public service… About 45 percent of all firefighters working in the United States today are employed privately… The majority of them work as government contractors fighting wildfires… Others are hired by insurance companies that are trying to head off major losses. AIG, Chubb and USAA are among the insurers offering homeowners’ insurance policies that include wildfire protection. …the leader of California’s largest fire service organization criticized the private firefighters in an interview.

I’m not surprised that government firefighters don’t approve of private competitors, so the final part of the excerpt is wrong-headed but predictable.

What’s perverse, though, is when people claim that the property owners who hire private firefighters “undermine what should be a public service.”

This class-warfare mentality is even more apparent in this story from the Hollywood Reporter. Here are a couple of sentences that summarize the controversy.

…the deployment of private firefighters has again become a politicized talking point. …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 his account.)

Last but not least, here are some excerpts from the report in the L.A. Times.

The crews from Torgerson’s Wildfire Defense Systems…set out for particular addresses. Armed with hoses, fire-blocking gel and their own water supply, the Montana-based outfit contracts with insurance companies to defend the homes of customers who buy policies that include their services. It’s a win-win if the private firefighters succeed in saving a home, said Torgerson, the company’s founder and executive chairman. The homeowner keeps their home and the insurance company doesn’t have to make a hefty payout to rebuild. …Their presence isn’t without controversy. Private firefighters hired by homeowners directly have drawn criticism for heightening class divides during disasters.

There are all sorts of practical arguments in favor of private firefighters. Unfortunately, those arguments probably won’t be persuasive for leftists who viscerally hate people with more money than they have

Being consumed by envy and driven by hate seems like a recipe for an unhappy life.