California Bill Would Ban Private Firefighters From Using Hydrants, Cites Public Good

THE CENTER SQUARE—California lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban private firefighters, like those who saved many buildings in the Palisades and Eaton fires, from using public hydrants, saying firefighting is a “public good.”

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, introduced Assembly Bill 1075 with the support of the California Professional Firefighters Union, which claims private firefighters are not trained or equipped as well.

“They don’t train to the same standards,” said California Professional Firefighters Union President Brian Rice to Politico regarding the bill. “They’re not equipped like we are. They’re not professionals like we are.”

As the Palisades Fire raged and destroyed most of the Pacific Palisades, one complex—Rick Caruso’s Palisade Village shopping center—escaped largely unscathed as the surrounding structures burned to the ground, thanks to the use of private firefighters. 

Bryan said he has no problem with wealthy individuals paying to protect their properties but added that private firefighters’ drawing of water from hydrants could have contributed to the hydrants running dry.

“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,” Bryan told Politico. “Firefighting is a public good.” 

There is no evidence that limited water use by a handful of private firefighters resulted in a lack of water pressure in the hydrants. Experts say water pressure failed in part because the reservoir above the Palisades built to provide water for fighting fires was left empty—despite abundant water availability across the state—to again make repairs to its plastic cover.

“Rick Caruso embarrassed Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass and the entire Democratic supermajority by doing something they couldn’t, prepare for devastating wildfires and defend property,” said Kevin Dalton, an activist and former candidate for Los Angeles County Supervisor, in response to the bill. “Now they want to take away his ability to do even that.”

Originally published by The Center Square.

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