The Private Firefighters On Call for the Californians Who Can Afford Them

Over the past few weeks, city and county firefighters have battled the L.A. fires in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Brentwood. Private firefighters were also present, keeping vigil over properties they were paid to protect. For Rolling Stone, Joseph Bien-Kahn profiles former stuntman and private firefighter Andrew Sarvis, whose company, West Coast Water Tenders, protected 25 of the 27 homes they’d been hired to save.

I ask the question I’ve been wondering since learning that private crews were fighting the L.A. Fires: what’s it cost to hire one? “Anywhere from $6,500 all the way up to $15 to $20,000 for a 12-hour shift,” Sarvis says. He won’t let me share West Coast Water Tenders’ rate, but he says that’s the range of prices for private firefighting services that he knows firsthand. In this desperate moment, with massive demand, he’d bet some of the private crews are charging even more. “I’ve had people yell at me, ‘You’re capitalizing on misery.’ No, 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.”