January 12, 2025

SF CHRONICLE: Private firefighters protected a Hollywood talent manager’s home. Why are some people so mad?

As [Miley Cyrus’ manager Adam Leber] rushed his family to safety amid a broader firestorm engulfing wide swaths of Los Angeles County, a private firefighting service arrived to ensure his 6,000-square-foot home — once owned by filmmaker Preston Sturges and “rumored to be the site of Charlie Chaplin’s first wedding,” according to an old real estate listing — remained standing.

Leber is one of a growing number of Californians who, faced with the growing threat of wildfires in populated areas, have turned to private firefighting teams as an added layer of protection. Supporters of private firefighting teams argue they can augment the work of government-run efforts, stepping in to fill the cracks caused by depleted city and state budgets and an ever-worsening climate crisis.

But not everyone is a fan of private firefighters, particularly those that contract directly with homeowners outside of insurance, like the company Leber hired. Critics contend that when wealthy individuals hire their own firefighters, they compete with public teams for precious resources such as water, and could potentially interfere with those teams’ efforts by, for example, blocking or crowding narrow access points.

Moreover, they say, private firefighters widen the already-vast chasm between rich and poor, safeguarding the interests of the former at the expense of the latter.

“The rich suffer zero consequences of anything, even cataclysmic natural disasters,” one user wrote on X, responding to a video the Chronicle posted showing private firefighters saving Leber’s house. “Private and firefighter should not be in the same sentence,” wrote another.

As Jon Levine of the New York Post tweets, “Imagine paying into one of the highest tax cities in the nation, and then none of the municipal services you pay for are there for you when you need them and so you have to resort to private services — and then are shamed for doing so!”

Between championing riots and looting that destroy local businesses (recall Tim Walz’s wife saying, she kept her windows open to “smell the burning tires” during the 2020 BLM riots), cheering on Luigi Mangione after he assassinated an insurance company CEO, and now wishing that the wealthy lose their homes in the L.A. fires, American leftists are now reduced to being the crusty conservative in the “Point/Counterpoint” segment of Airplane:

UPDATE: And again: Billionaire tycoon is blasted after hiring a private fire crew to protect his luxury outdoor mall as devastating wildfires continue to rip through LA.

Los Angeles residents are furious a billionaire tycoon spent thousands of dollars on private firefighters to help protect his business while emergency services struggle to contain the flames.

Billionaire developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is receiving backlash online after the New York Times reported that he had hired private fire crews to protect Palisades Village – an upscale outdoor mall owned by the businessman.

‘So Rick directly or indirectly contributed to the fires by diverting resources to himself and away from the greater population. I think this needs to be investigated ASAP’, one user wrote on X.

Another said: ‘We cannot survive the billionaire class’. A separate account commented: ‘Dystopian capitalism’.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Caruso’s team.

Fire crews for hire can cost between $3,000 and $10,000 a day and are mostly contracted with insurance companies or the government.

Shana, they bought their tickets…

UPDATE: “They genuinely want you to die.” Exactly:

Posted at 7:30 pm by Ed Driscoll