By AFP - Agence France Presse
Private firefighters highlight the division of wealth in Los Angeles in ruins.
On one side of the street are the ashes of ruined houses, lost in the huge flames that defeated Los Angeles firefighters when the hydrants ran dry.
On the other side, a small village of stores is still intact, protected by tanker trucks and an army of private firefighters.
More than a week after huge fires spread unchecked through areas of the second-largest metropolis in the United States, questions are being asked about how some of the city's super-rich seem to have survived almost unscathed.
“All I can say is that we were hired and ordered to stay here. I'm not allowed to tell you any more than that,” a man in a yellow and green uniform told AFP in front of the commercial enterprise.
The men, along with their pickup trucks with Oregon license plates, were parked on billionaire Rick Caruso's property.
Their presence - protecting stores selling luxury brands such as Yves Saint-Laurent, Isabel Marant, and Erewhon - is a shock in a city where more than two dozen people have died and thousands have lost their homes.
“It's a shame there's a lot of politics involved,” says another of the gentlemen. “We just want to do the job and help however we can.”
Caruso, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.
However, in Pacific Palisades, a place frequented by Hollywood celebrities and the ultra-rich, he is not the only one using his wealth to protect his property.
Other private firefighters stand guard in front of some of the pristine, princely mansions that dot the hillsides.
- You will pay any amount
The sector made headlines in 2018 when Kim Kardashian and her then-husband, Kanye West, hired private firefighters to protect their luxury apartment in the affluent Hidden Hills community north of the city.
The profiles of the two distinct areas that were hit by last week's fires - the wealthy Pacific Palisades and the more mixed Altadena - have already served to highlight the economic divisions in the United States.
The disparity was further highlighted shortly after the fires when real estate developer Keith Wasserman attracted an avalanche of criticism after a post on social media.
“Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home?” he wrote in the post, now deleted.
“I need to act fast here. All the neighbors' houses are burning. I will pay any amount.”
These services can cost between $2,000 and $15,000 a day, US media reported, citing local companies.
But even for those with the resources, calling in private firefighters isn't always simple - most companies are hired by cities, government departments, or insurance companies.
In California, a law passed in 2018 limits how they can operate.
They cannot wear flashing lights or badges similar to those of public firefighters and are required to coordinate with them.
Since this legislation came into force, some companies have refused to serve individuals.
- Whose water is it? -
Public or private, all firefighters have the same mission: “To protect our community,” said Jake Heflin, a firefighter with the publicly funded Long Beach Fire Department.
“If it's done correctly, in partnership and together, it can be very effective,” said Heflin.
But it can also create problems.
Taxpayer-funded services shouldn't have to focus “resources on taking care of them because they're ill-equipped or ill-prepared and have put themselves in a difficult situation,” he said.
Firefighters “want to have these conversations well in advance of the event”.
It's unclear how much coordination existed before the disaster in Pacific Palisades, where hydrants ran dry and some homes were effectively left to burn.
For Jeff Ridgway, 67, a resident of Pacific Palisades who resorted to buckets from a swimming pool when the main supply ran out, this is a key question.
“It will be very interesting to see if they used those hydrants,” Ridgway told AFP.
“I hope they brought their water.”
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