Private Firefighter: People Were Offering Me $1M

In the midst of the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles real estate mogul Keith Wasserman tweeted an urgent plea for private firefighters to come to his home to protect it. "Will pay any amount," he wrote. The plea drew plenty of attention and scorn, but it also illustrated the growing role of private firefighters in the LA area as wildfires grow more common. Rolling Stone explores the issue through the eyes of Andrew Sarvis, 57, who operates his own private firefighting crew called West Coast Water Tenders. "I had people calling me, 'If I write you a check right now for a million dollars, will you come to my house?'" Sarvis tells Joseph Bien-Allen. For the record, Sarvis says he turned down all such offers because he'd already made commitments to his existing customers.

Critics say the idea of private firefighters is elitist, but Sarvis and others see them as a vital addition to city and county crews. "A good analogy would be a one-on-one defense versus zone defense," says LAFD Captain Brock Larue. City and county crews "assess everything you can to do the greatest good." Private crews, on the other hand, zero in on home specific homes they are paid to save. Sarvis says he and his crew contracted with 27 homeowners during the recent fires, and all but two of the homes survived. Sarvis doesn't divulge his own rates, but he says a range would be $6,500 to $20,000 for a 12-hour shift. "I'm here filling a gap in the system and trying to be helpful," he says. "And yeah, we have to make money to do this, because it costs money to operate, and people don't work for free." (Read the full story.)