Article

2017-11-06 Economy

As Wildfires Raged, Insurers Sent in Private Firefighters to Protect Homes of the Wealthy

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Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-06 03:06|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 Important to keep in mind the US Forest Service is a government funded, blanket plan. Supplemental protection may be required.

Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-06 03:16|| 2017-11-06 03:16|| Front Page Top

#2 The important point is that most properties are saveable with appropriate actions and property owners are mostly at fault for not taking the right actions.

A pet issue of mine in Aus. Where bushfires feed the media's cult of the victim.

Posted by phil_b 2017-11-06 03:45|| 2017-11-06 03:45|| Front Page Top

#3 Any home over $1 million should have its own built-in fire suppression system.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 04:09|| 2017-11-06 04:09|| Front Page Top

#4 Taking some of the pressure off the regular and volunteer firefighters? Brilliant.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-11-06 06:16|| 2017-11-06 06:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Soon we will be taught that it is unfair and probably racist for some rich people to get more firefighting benefit than what is provided to the average person. And besides, it infringes on the firefighters' union contracts.

Posted by Glenmore 2017-11-06 08:09|| 2017-11-06 08:09|| Front Page Top

#6 The free market at work. Insurers protecting their bottom lines by preventing losses in the mots cost-effective way possible.

All of the leftists would prefer all the homes to be destroyed, rather than save the most valuable ones.

Posted by Lone Ranger 2017-11-06 09:16|| 2017-11-06 09:16|| Front Page Top

#7 All of the leftists would prefer all the homes to be destroyed, rather than save the most valuable ones.

Unless they be their own.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-11-06 09:42|| 2017-11-06 09:42|| Front Page Top

#8 I suppose we'll soon see a voucher systems for private utility providers of choice.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-11-06 09:59|| 2017-11-06 09:59|| Front Page Top

#9 Contractors. Worked out well in this case.

Posted by M. Murcek 2017-11-06 10:44|| 2017-11-06 10:44|| Front Page Top

#10 One concern is that when the private firefighters get in trouble - serious personal danger - they will call on the regular crews to come to their aid in what would have otherwise been an area they would write off as too risky.

Posted by Glenmore 2017-11-06 12:44|| 2017-11-06 12:44|| Front Page Top

#11 here in Sun Valley Idaho it is common practice to send private firefighters to help with insured expensive homes, esp considering the folks who have homes here, Jawn Kerry, Oliver Stone, Tom Hanks, The Wrigley's,Herbert Allen, Clint Eastwood (the only Republican), and the list goes on and on........ just sayin

Posted by 746 2017-11-06 13:22|| 2017-11-06 13:22|| Front Page Top

#12 I've read somewhere that it is possible to buy an outdoor sprinkler / fire suppression system using foam/water material to give minutes to hours protection of real estate from wildfires. You can imagine what that costs if even the multimillionaires don't want to pay for it.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 14:27|| 2017-11-06 14:27|| Front Page Top

#13 I've read somewhere that it is possible to buy an outdoor sprinkler / fire suppression system

I'm starting to see them advertised in Australia. Around $10K and up from memory.

link

Posted by phil_b 2017-11-06 17:57|| 2017-11-06 17:57|| Front Page Top

#14 & #12
(search wildfire suppression systems for outdoors)
onestopfire.com
homefirefightingsystems.com

*not endorsing either location and/or products, just a good starting point for what is out there and some price points.

So for about $5000 you get a portable pump, hose, and foam or gel, which you want, nay need one or the other unless you plan on fighting the fire with that machine, to which I suggest uploading your will to the cloud beforehand.

Not sure what an outdoor system would run, but retro-fitting houses sucks money just in labor.

Either way there are going to be water issues - cannot depend on the faucet to be on - and powering the pumps so gasoline supplies as well.

Now that portable rig is 200 lbs. -before- water gets into it, and it looks like it does not off road at all, and 100' of hose is probably not going to do it. Pretty labor intensive.

And swimming pools do not have as much water as it seems when it comes to wetting a property. Much better to hit hot spots and make wet lines. Keep vegetation away from defending structures and cut low, trim tree branches at least 6' to 10', embers are your enemy so fire rated roof and gutters clean chimney closed go a long ways. Keep the big fire away, and make sure it can't creep into your siding by the foundation and we're doing good.

When the wind is doing 70, time runs quick and embers definitely hate you, and spraying into the wind, they way you need to, just doesn't work. We got a lot of finger wagging about where were our firebreaks? Wellfokmahn, we could have fallen back to the Missouri River and still got jumped. But the humble plow and keeping the big fire loads away from structures saved quite a few buildings - some with people sheltering in it. Plowed the ground, especially on the windward exposures, and the fire had virtually nothing to eat near the structure.

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-11-06 18:16|| 2017-11-06 18:16|| Front Page Top

#15 Most of the really expensive modern homes I see are designed to impress the neighbors with conspicuous consumption doo-dads rather than the non-glamorous stuff that really makes a building valuable, safe & useful.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 19:27|| 2017-11-06 19:27|| Front Page Top

#16 Organized firefighting originated in England after the Great Fire of London. It was private enterprise, exactly light what is reported here. In fact today, one can collect old 'fire marks'. Each company gave out these marks to their customers to put on their buildings so that the fire companies would know whether to fight their fires. They were also advertising for the fire companies. Actually they evolved into fire insurance companies, and some still exist today.

Posted by Daniel 2017-11-06 19:34|| 2017-11-06 19:34|| Front Page Top

#17 Yup, though I have seen a walk-through of a really nice house, wish I remembered whose because he had the auto-sprinklers, large water tank and swimming pool (+ equipment to draft), all the cogs and sprockets needed to run a hose effectively, and his own brush truck he could and did operate on his own, never mind having help. Nice little barn which looked more like a pool house.

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-11-06 19:37|| 2017-11-06 19:37|| Front Page Top

#18 The pictures at those links, nice houses, but played a good game of Where's Waldo with all the fire dangers. Geesh, trim those trees back just to keep the sap from falling all over everything.

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-11-06 19:39|| 2017-11-06 19:39|| Front Page Top

23:13 Si vis pacem
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