LA billionaire Rick Caruso’s private fire crews the target of California bill

Literally, Sacramento Democrats do not want you to protect your home from fire.  This, even when the government fire department is unable to do the job, we pay them for.  Even when government is at fault for the fire.  Own property and government will decide if it should be saved, you have no say in the matter.  Sounds like a dictatorship.

“— Los Angeles Democrats are teaming up with a statewide firefighters’ union on a bill aimed at private firefighting crews, such as the ones billionaire developer Rick Caruso hired to protect his properties as devastating wildfires burned swaths of the region.

The legislation would block private firefighting companies from hooking up to public hydrants, targeting a longstanding headache for the union.

There is no clear indication that such activity was widespread or that it hampered the city’s response to the Palisades Fire that destroyed thousands of homes. But the 35,000-member California Professional Firefighters union has long argued that private crews hinder their members’ work and should be outlawed.”

Yup, this has nothing to do with fighting fires.  It is about unions control of government.  The firefighters union would rather your property burn, rather than allow you to use private resources.  This is outrageous.  Now you know why unions are a danger to society.

LA billionaire Rick Caruso’s private fire crews the target of California bill

A Los Angeles lawmaker introduced the legislation after Caruso hired private firefighters to protect his properties during the Southern California wildfires.

By Lindsey Holden, Politico, 2/26/25  https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/rick-caruso-private-firefighters-00206315

SACRAMENTO, California — Los Angeles Democrats are teaming up with a statewide firefighters’ union on a bill aimed at private firefighting crews, such as the ones billionaire developer Rick Caruso hired to protect his properties as devastating wildfires burned swaths of the region.

The legislation would block private firefighting companies from hooking up to public hydrants, targeting a longstanding headache for the union.

There is no clear indication that such activity was widespread or that it hampered the city’s response to the Palisades Fire that destroyed thousands of homes. But the 35,000-member California Professional Firefighters union has long argued that private crews hinder their members’ work and should be outlawed.

“They don’t train with us. They don’t train to the same standards,” said Brian Rice, CPF president. “They’re not equipped like we are. They’re not professionals like we are. And anybody that wants to argue and tell you differently, they’re fooling themselves. Nobody’s trained like a professional California firefighter.”

Caruso — who owns a shopping center in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood — was the most high-profile figure known to have hired private firefighters during the Los Angeles-area wildfires, though his team insists that he didn’t use any city water. He was also a vocal critic of LA leaders’ response to the fires, particularly Mayor Karen Bass, his opponent during the 2022 mayoral election.

Rice slammed critiques of the fire response from Caruso and other prominent residents, saying they have “used social media to corrupt the messaging.”

“It wasn’t about saving the buildings,” Rice said about the early hours of the Palisades fire. “It was about saving people. Can you imagine the discussion we would be having instead of 17,000 buildings lost, if we’d have lost 17,000 citizens? And that pisses me off. These guys are about money. It’s about the haves and the have nots, period. And they don’t put faith in their fire department.”

Both lawmakers behind the bill — Democratic Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan and Tina McKinnor — are allies of Bass, who has faced intense scrutiny since the Palisades fire began last month while she was on a diplomatic trip overseas. On Friday, Bass fired the Los Angeles fire chief, who had been publicly critical of the city’s funding of her department — amid an escalating blame game, angering local fire union leaders.

Bryan said private firefighters hooking up to public water to defend wealthy Angelenos’ property “wouldn’t be an issue, except everything else around it burned to smithereens, and there were conversations about whether the municipal infrastructure could handle the amount of water that was being drawn from it to fight the most intense wildfires Los Angeles has ever seen.”

“Firefighting is a public good,” the state lawmaker said. “It is a public resource. It is something that we all invest in and we all derive benefits from.”

The state already requires private crews to abide by certain rules, such as checking in with incident commanders, labeling their equipment non-emergency and not using lights or sirens. Bryan and McKinnor’s proposal would add another regulation to that list, originally created through a 2018 bill California legislators passed in the wake of a particularly destructive wildfire season in 2017.

When asked about the bill and proponents’ arguments, a Caruso spokesperson said the developer is “working around the clock to cut through red tape so that we have a fair recovery” through a nonprofit he recently created to accelerate rebuilding.

Caruso’s involvement has spurred speculation about his interest in another mayoral run or a 2026 bid for California governor after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom finishes his final term.

“It’s a shame that some people would willfully spread disinformation and push partisan politics at a time when all our energy needs to be focused on rebuilding our communities,” the spokesperson said, referencing the allegations Caruso’s crews hooked up to city water. “Rick is busy fixing problems and is not worried about political noise that does not clean a single lot or build a single home.”