How the Ultra-Rich Are Paying Thousands to Save Their Mansions

Wealthy homeowners pay up to $10,000 a day for private firefighters, while incarcerated crews earn just $30 for a 24-hour shift

The financial divide…

The general public first became aware of these companies in 2018 when they helped save rapper Ye and his then-wife Kim Kardashian’s $60 million mansion in the gated Hidden Hills community from that year’s Woosley wildfire. This past week, Billionaire Rick Caruso called in several firefighting firms from Arizona to save his Palisades Village mall. While everything around it is reduced to rubble, his mall stands unscathed. They used several private water tanks with 3,000 gallons of water in each to save the structure. Caruso utilized this expensive service for his residential properties as well.

The difference between saving your house or reducing it to rubble is having access to expensive private firefighters. Typically, these brigades only work with local governments or insurance companies. Insurance companies have sometimes offered wealthy policyholders private firefighters to protect their homes. But this week, wealthy Angelino homeowners somehow contacted them directly.

A two-person private firefighting crew can cost around $3,000 daily, while a larger 20-person team can cost up to $10,000. However, some claim to have become so desperate that they charge as much as $2,000 an hour. Even if the fire hydrants run out of water, the firefighters can pull water from the residential pools that many of these million-dollar homes have. However, there are reports of some private brigades tapping into fire hydrants despite them being a government resource.

The tweet that pissed everyone off…

When Los Angeles-based real estate investor Keith Wasserman posted this tweet, everyone went after him—so much so that he had to delete the tweet and his profile.

Of course, he can afford it at a firm with a portfolio valued at about $1.59 billion. However, I’m unsure why he tweeted his needs to more than 100,000 followers rather than conducting the research himself. This past tweet he made also did not help his case at all.

Incarcerated firefighters VS private…

About 1,000 incarcerated firefighters have been deployed to help fight the fires ravaging Los Angeles. They typically earn $30 for a 24-hour shift, and for each day they spend on the crew, they get two days shaved off their sentences. According to the state department’s corrections website, incarcerated fire crew members make a base rate of $5.80 and $10.24.

Under California's constitution, involuntary servitude is permitted as punishment for a crime, allowing low wages to persist. While private firefighters receive thousands of dollars to fight fires, incarcerated people receive two weeks of training and a couple of dollars an hour.

The growing reliance of the ultra-rich on private firefighting services highlights a stark financial divide between the wealthy and the rest of society, particularly in regions vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires.

While billionaires can afford to hire expensive brigades to protect their multimillion-dollar properties, the contrast with the low wages and difficult conditions faced by incarcerated firefighters underscores a deeply troubling imbalance.

The disparity between private firefighters earning thousands of dollars a day and incarcerated individuals receiving mere pennies per hour reflects broader issues of inequality and exploitation. As the wealthy continue to protect their assets through such means, the question of fairness and the role of public resources in wildfire management remains a critical issue that demands attention and reform.