- Providing on-site protection during a fire is a small part of what private fire companies do, executives told BI.
- On-site defense crews cost thousands a day.
- Companies in the space said they mostly contract with the federal government or insurers, not private owners.
Private firefighters aren’t doing what you might think they are – not exactly.
Reports of wealthy Los Angeles-area homeowners paying private firefighters thousands of dollars a day have circulated on social media in the past week, perpetuating the perception among some that on-site emergency protection for structures is what the industry is all about. Executives at two California-based private firefighting companies told Business Insider that’s not the case.
Private fire protection for individual private owners is important
Jess Wills, president of Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, says his business focuses primarily on contracting with the federal government to put out wildfires.
Deborah Miley, executive director of the National Fire Agency, which represents more than 300 private fire companies, told BI that private firefighters have contracted with the federal government since the 1980s, while the portion of the industry that contracts directly with private owners is “in its infancy”. Some private companies also contract directly with insurers, Miley said, a practice that is also relatively new and far more common than working directly with homeowners.
Private firefighting as it’s often perceived — with trucks stationed outside an individual’s home, dousing it with water after a blaze burns — isn’t widespread, Wills said. He said the practice makes up a small part of his business.
Private contractors working for private homeowners or landowners make up less than 1% of the private fire service industry, according to the National Fire Association. Some private fire companies contract with insurance companies to protect property.
Wills said he first noticed interest in on-site firefighting from private landowners just under two decades ago.
“You’re starting to see high-net-worth people making calls,” Wills told BI, saying he doesn’t publicly advertise the service. “For us, what happens is the fires start and then people just start going online, Googling, looking for ‘private fire protection’ and somehow we come up.”
Joe Torres, founder of All Risk Shield, said he offers on-site protection as a small part of his business. All Risk Shield offers three levels of fire protection services throughout the year at various price points, with the most basic costing $2,500 per year. The first tier includes preventive maintenance, and the second adds fire monitoring and further preparedness services. Only the third level, the most expensive, involves an on-site team to protect a property during a fire. He declined to say how much the third level costs.
All Risk Shield does not offer on-site protection outside of the package throughout the year. Torres, who was a public firefighter for 24 years before starting his company, said he only has “a small fraction of those clients” who choose a third-level service in California.
On-site protection can cost thousands per day
Neither Wills nor Torres would say how much it costs an individual landowner to hire a private firefighting team for on-site emergency protection. Both said the estimates of about $5,000 a day are in line with what they believe some competitors charge.
Wills told BI that he charges individuals a rate very similar to the federal government — for a crew of three in California, he said his federal government contracts cost about $4,000 a day. Prices vary based on location, property size and number of trucks, he said.
Torres said his main goal is to make basic fire protection accessible to as many people as possible, especially through his least expensive, tier one package. He said he worries that some companies are charging people exorbitant fees in dire situations.
“I’ve heard some numbers and some stuff, and it doesn’t sound good,” he said.
David Torgerson, CEO of a company that works exclusively with insurers, previously told BI that he never deals with homeowners. His company, he said, protects vulnerable structures against fires based on risk, not value.
Aspects of the private firefighting industry may be on the rise
Wills does not predict that the private firefighting industry will grow significantly in the coming years or that many people will take preventative action to protect their homes from fire. He said people quickly forget about fires months after they happen.
Torres said he has seen an increase in business since 2018, telling BI that there has been “significant growth” at his company since 2020. Miley, of the National Fire Agency, said she thinks that more people will be interested in strengthening fire. or protecting their property before a fire enters.
Fire mitigation strategies can include applying protective gel, removing combustibles and cleaning gutters, Torgerson previously told BI. Typically, his crews will work on insured properties hours or days before a wildfire is expected to pass.
Customers who use private fire extinguishers face criticism
Some of the few Californians who have hired on-site protection for their homes have faced criticism.
Keith Wasserman, co-founder and managing partner of Gelt Venture Partners, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm, sparked backlash after posting on social media asking if anyone had access to private firefighters to protect his home in Pacific Palisades , where the average property price is around $3.4 million.
“Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home in Pacific Palisades?” he asked in a since-deleted X post earlier this month. “You have to act fast here. All the neighbors’ houses are burning. They will pay any amount.”
Wasserman did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
It’s not the first time celebrities have hired private firefighters to protect their homes. In 2018, Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, hired crews to protect their $60 million home when flames approached their neighborhood.
This incident also caused reactions.
Wills said he thinks it’s the first time many people are learning about the private firefighting industry. Both he and Torres told BI that they don’t think most people understand much of the focus of their business, but are aware of the developing negative connotations associated with the industry.
“I understand the perception of it, of course, but it’s like, welcome to the real world,” Wills said of the heated controversy. “Ask anyone: if you had the money in the bank and you knew someone who had a motorbike available, why wouldn’t you have it?”
