The Controversial Rise of Private Firefighters in California

retired firefighter here , worked on a private contract engine -we were trained to federal standards --we were not welcome in California -- check out how much overtime Cal fire employees make

Career firefighter here and I support private firefighting.

Insurance companies are already refusing to insure against wildfires, so if you own a multi-million dollar house you're going to be willing to pay these freelancers to protect your house because it's an otherwise uninsured risk of losing your home.

I dont see a controversy here. Its like having a security company at your shop for theft prevention. Nobody makes a controversy out of that....

I understand both sides let's be real both sides are there for a paycheck........hope they get it sorta out

🥳

Remembering Dave Hawks, I never friended him during my time on Facebook and Wesley Shamblin. I met Jerry Partain once. A friend from BlM passed: Jeffrey Bain: I did not Google any of this. William Bain? Hugh Scanlon got a message from me once. In most highest regard: Dale Thrornburgh: the yee old HSU, now Cal Poly.

I showcased a seminar once 30 years past on Fire Supression Vegetation with a Fire Suoression units cloth photo hand sewn to my still prime rear end. Other than that, I love the Fire suppression memorial movie on TV

That suit is so busy thinking he is all that. A real girl handed ----------. You fill in the blank. He no more cares about people than the man in the moon. There is a lot in contracts with state employees being given money that most people don't know about. Spend it or lose it.
He talks about these guys making money. WELL, I wonder if he works for free.

Really stupid idea.

Government is over spending on other things rather than our safety. We can easily open up more stations. The government rather spend millions on programs that they can make side money on. I find this disgusting.

If your private business survive on fires and there is no fires, what will they do to stay in business. That's always the negative side of privatization.

In australia i believe that during a fire, anyone can start backburns with the property owners permission. Or at least no-one is going to be taken to court over doing so.

That guy, there only in on it for the money. I've literally heard Cal Fire personnel brag how much money their making and there not sure what kind of boat they want.

If someone wants to hire private firefighters, it’s their right. If these companies weren’t allowed to operate, then the pre fire clearing of vegetation would never happen. Even restricted to select properties, it still benefits the community as a whole

Tipical California government attitude not wanting to work with private entities.when your home or property is in danger u don't care who shows up as long as someone comes.

It’s funny because there’s private fire entities that are MORE QUALIFIED than some federal and state agencies. That’s why they get contracted by the government. These people like in calfire because these private entities are eating into federal and state overtime.

WA, WA, WA

10 or so yrs ago a LA fire captain made 350k in 1 year? Lol! I guess his dic* coupled as a fire hose ?

Why are you paying taxes?

Everyone knows if you take business or money away from the Government, you get punished

So you can hire privat security but shouldnt be able to hire privat fire safty

"They're one more group of citizens that we have to watch out for or are responsible for." That said it all. It's not us vs you, it's all of us, that is what we were founded on, not a ruling body.

As someone in the industry, if the gov't paid their actual employees enough maybe they wouldn't leave to go private. Also there are lots of grants available through the feds to get fire prevention work done on your property. So the feds themselves can't get on the same page.

That Brian guy makes it sound like his ego is swollen and he's battling for a position of control when both him and any private firefighting contractor should work together.

They need to figure out a way to work together. Brian and that other fella need to understand these guys are in asset, NOT a liability. have an initial meeting in the beginning and get things squared away WITHOUT someone feeling like they're in charge. have a midway meeting and another one later at the end.

however they do it, they NEED to work together. Privately hired firefighters shouldn't be harassed by the other guys.

Ok, prior Hotshot here. USFS 100 percent lets these things get out of control so they can collect overtime. Insurance companies are literally just trying to save money. All these agencies are just trying to protect their overtime. Trust me they do not care about the publics property. They literally just try to create overtime..... Look at the lines they put in.

They definitely lit a backfire

Someone look up the “union” president salary. Everything is money. Private is wrong. Cal fire has been wrong for decades on how they do things. It’s all about the money.

I think this was a pretty good news piece. I spent the better part of 3 decades first working for CDF (yes, I am that old) then moving into law enforcement with the National Park Service, which involves heavy interaction on the fire side of things. I watched this video with an open mind, and I have to say that I come down very strongly on the side of the private firefighters. I felt that the Cal Fire spokesman in Temecula was being a little bit pissy about having other people do things that he's been taught all of his life only he can do and be a hero at. However, if we are talking about having private fire Crews freelancing on public lands then I can totally see where that would be a major problem. Everybody has to be part of the incident command system and be on the same page and have the same training and the same radios and use the same vocabulary and on and on and on. If it's on private property, let's say five acres that somebody has a 2M house on, and that homeowner or the homeowners insurance company wants to put a fire engine with 3-4 private firefighters on it put in a hose lay around the house and have a backup water pump ready to suck out water from the pool after the tank is empty on the engine then everybody and especially CalFire needs to shut up up. And the spokesman for CDF was acting like everybody has to leave during an evacuation. That's so not true. The Supreme Court has ruled that if the homeowner wants to stay that they do so at their own risk. If you have a fire engine with a capable three or four person crew and lots of water then certainly that's not the same as having a third grader and a junior high school kid and a mom there. Two totally different situations. I'm proud of the time that I spent working in fire and in law enforcement, but one thing I learned is that there are no more bigger Egos and chips on the shoulder and arrogance than in those two professions. Too many people in those professions look at themselves as Gods because they've been told that all their life.

Fires aren't being fought because of politicians

Private firefighters are a different breed... I was on a national guard handcrew 2 years ago and we paired up with 2 different civilian handcrews. Long story short those guys were heros... Crazy, but heros.

So how about this. Build a fire shelter in a well prepared and maintained safe zone near your home. People build storm shelters and survive monster tornadoes in them. The same could be done for fire. If there is a fire near you, as soon as you know of it, wet everything you can reach. Stay at it as long as you possibly can and then get yourself into the shelter. I don't understand why this isn't a prerequisite for anyone who lives in fire prone areas. Firefighters survive burnovers in tinfoil shelters so there is no reason why people couldn't survive in a shelter buried several feet underground. A fireproof entrance, with secondary chambering, like an airlock, separating the outer door and inner door. Anyway, that's one thought I have on the matter. Another is having a pond built for holding water to pump from. Trimming low limbs, clearing underbrush, and prescribed burning to lower the available fuel are a few things I actually do already. I don't live in a major fire risk area but if I did these are some things what I would do if I did live in those areas. It just seems like the things we've been doing aren't really working great.

"These people are in it for the money"
Yeah, so are cancer researchers.

Why can't someone do a good thing AND make a profit off it?
Governments really attract the lowest IQ people.

what is the big deal ??? If you have the money get the service simple... Just like security if you need it have money get it simple....

What if some of these people light back burns or do anything else that might put our firefighters in danger. They don’t know what is going on

These private firefighting companies will kill professional firefighters just to cash in and protect their client's property.

The message here that I see is 2 fold. As a former fire fighter, and as an active forestry contractor, I can honestly say that professional firefighters don’t like the private side, mostly due to work ethic,private contractors, work harder ,do a better job in the forest and on the fire line then the so called professionals do. Also, a big factor is the firefighters unions like any union don’t want anyone outside of their reach. Cal fire is more concerned with spending money on shiny new equipment and putting that money to work preventing these fires.

Rice was spot on when he said it is all about the money. What he didn't say is it is all about public agency's money. Government agencies use these large fires to A) argue for increased budgets (more tax money) for increased staffing, newer equipment, more stations, etc. B) a lot of departments use these large fires to actually make money. When agencies are called in to large fires, the home agency gets paid. The equipment dispatched is "rented". The personnel on the equipment are paid. Travel expenses are paid...Nothing is free and agencies actually make money off these fires. I personally know of departments and districts that specifically purchased equipment not for their agency, but to "hire out" on larger fires.

theyre basically landscapers with extra steps, but seriously get rid of private unless you get contracted out to a fire, if not stay home and let the actual people who know what theyre doing work. yeah i can see why an uncommunicated backburn could definitely go wrong, the way he says we used what we had says he totally did.

There are legitimate private organizations that are contracted out such as PatRick [we have them here in NC that the USFS brings to larger incidents], but they are under a contract with the federal government, and have met the competency standards and fall in with our systems. But companies that go and just do their own thing are a problem, we have the issue with volunteer fire departments freelancing and doing their own thing outside of our system because many of them don't like the idea of being told what to do by State Officials.

thank capitalism

Cal-fire are a bunch of 🤡s

I have been part of a contractor crew of 20 members . We worked hand and hand with many different Fire Departments on many wildfires around the country. It is more about being a asset to the command staff and not playing freelancer. We always had communication with division supervisors and more if needed . It's fine if you want to lay the blame on all of us for others miss guided actions. Just know we all go out there , or most of us want to protect lives and property having taking many training courses for Wildland Firefighting .

The government always hates when their incompetence is illuminated.

Fighting forest fires often results in a Sisyphean task where efforts to suppress the flames inadvertently contribute to future problems. When fires are extinguished, dead trees and accumulated underbrush are left behind, creating a dense fuel load that can easily ignite in subsequent years. This buildup of flammable material, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change—such as prolonged droughts, higher temperatures, and unpredictable weather patterns—sets the stage for even larger and more intense fires. This cyclical nature of fire suppression and increased fuel load, exacerbated by climate change, highlights the futility of merely fighting fires without addressing the underlying causes and implementing comprehensive forest management strategies.

I can see both sides of this but that Brian guy is exactly what’s wrong with today’s society. He doesn’t seem willing to talk about the problem. Doesn’t seem to care he’s in a sinking ship with people around him willing to help but he’s screaming no…

Are you guys hiring? Where do i apply?

It’s all about politics. It’s like the chinook helicopter that Courson has which has night fire fighting capabilities and CalFire didn’t want to use them just for the simple fact that they would of put the fire out faster but there’s money to be made

Sounds like some bs from the state of California