Filling the Gap: How Private Firefighters Protect Southern California Homes

Written By Triston Radant

Wildfire is now year-round in California. Local fire departments are often stretched thin during a major wildfire incident and private fire departments help fill that gap by focusing solely on protecting your property, home, business, school, or critical infrastructure.

What Is a Private Fire Department?

A private fire department (or private firefighting company) is a professional firefighting team that property owners, organizations, and institutions hire directly.

In Southern California, companies like Safety Services Management (SSM) focus on:

  • Pre-season wildfire assessments and hardening for:

    • Single-family homes and estates

    • Commercial buildings and business campuses

    • Private schools and educational facilities

    • Critical infrastructure sites such as pump stations, communication facilities, logistics yards, and energy infrastructure

  • On-call wildfire protection for specific properties and communities

  • Defensive structure protection using engines, skid units, pumps, hose lines, and foam systems

  • Extended post fire patrols to watch for hidden embers and rekindles

  • Support safe evacuation of residents and employees

These private crews train within the Incident Command System (ICS) so they can work alongside public firefighters. They do this while maintaining a very narrow, property focused mission.



Offensive Versus Defensive: How Private Firefighting Is Different

Most public fire agencies, including LAFD, LA County Fire, OCFA, San Diego Fire-Rescue, and CAL FIRE, have to think offensively. They are responsible for the entire incident, which includes:

  • Building fire line and cutting dozer breaks

  • Evacuating entire neighborhoods, school zones, and business districts

  • Triaging streets and facilities

  • Racing ahead of the fire front to defend the next community or infrastructure corridor at risk

Private fire departments operate almost entirely on the defensive side:

  • They are not trying to chase or contain the wildfire.

  • They focus on one home, commercial building, private school campus, critical infrastructure site, or group of properties they have been hired to protect.

  • Their time is not divided between multiple divisions, strike teams, or geographic branches.

Defensive priorities include:

  • Creating and improving defendable space around structures and facilities

  • Pre treating buildings and nearby vegetation with fire-retardant foam

  • Setting up equipment for structure protection

  • Staying behind after the fire front moves through to watch for embers that could reignite

Municipal engines may have to move on to the next area, while a private fire crew stays focused on your address and your operation.

Extra Resources for Overwhelmed Incidents

During a major wind driven fire, public agencies often have more calls for help than they have resources. Incident commanders must decide on which areas to protect to stay ahead of the fire.

Adding a private fire department means:

  • More engines and firefighters on the incident overall

  • A dedicated crew whose only job is to protect your:

    • Home or estate

    • Commercial building or business campus

    • Private school or college facility

    • Critical infrastructure site

  • Municipal agencies can concentrate on the broader fire fight, knowing your property or facility already has its own protection plan

This is especially valuable in hillside neighborhoods, canyon communities, business parks in the WUI, private school campuses in foothill areas, and infrastructure sites where fire-related outages can affect entire regions.

Hardening Homes, Businesses, Schools, and Infrastructure Before the Fire Front Arrives

“Home hardening” is the process of modifying a building and its surroundings so it is far more likely to survive ember showers and radiant heat. The same principles apply to commercial buildings, private schools, and critical infrastructure.

California’s core rules for defensible space are laid out in Public Resources Code 4291, which requires at least 100 feet of defensible space (or to the property line) in designated fire-prone areas. CAL FIRE’s Defensible Space page and its “Defensible Space and the Law” factsheet explain how those requirements translate into Zones 0, 1, and 2 around structures.

Local agencies between Los Angeles and San Diego build on that:

  • Los Angeles City & County

    • LAFD Brush Clearance Requirements outline how properties in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones must be maintained, often beyond the 100-foot minimum where topography and exposure demand it.

    • LA County Fire’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program describes annual inspections and specific clearance standards for hillside and WUI properties.

  • Orange County (OCFA)

  • San Diego County

    • San Diego County’s “Defensible Space and You” guide (DPLU #199) describes how to create and maintain defensible space around homes and structures, and how to clear vegetation without destabilizing slopes or causing erosion:
      https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/pds/docs/DPLU199.pdf

SSM tailors recommendations for:

  • Single-family homes and residential communities

  • Multi-tenant commercial centers and standalone businesses

  • Campus style private schools, religious facilities, and nonprofit campuses

  • Critical infrastructure such as water facilities, telecom hubs, and energy related sites

On the day of a fire, a private fire crew can:

  • Clear flammable items from the first few feet around structures

  • Close any windows, doors, or vents

  • Add temporary ember resistant screens or covers where feasible

  • Lay out hose lines, portable tanks and pumps for structure protection

  • Apply firefighting foam or gel to structures and vegetation around the designated property

With a private fire crew, your site is not competing with an entire region for a brief visit before firefighters must move on.

Helping People Evacuate Safely

Evacuation orders can be chaotic. Private firefighters on site can:

  • Help occupants understand when it is time to leave

  • Confirm that doors and gates are secure and gas is shut off

  • Verify important items such as medications and records are taken

  • Assist in coordinating evacuation plans

  • Provide a calm, professional presence during a chaotic moment

Once people leave, the private crew remains onsite to defend the property.

Staying Long After the Fire Front Passes

One of the biggest gaps in wildfire operations is what happens after the main fire front passes by. Municipal engines often redeploy to chase the fire and protect new areas. That is when many structures are lost.

Private firefighters fill that gap by:

  • Patrolling roofs, eaves, decks, campuses, and facility grounds for ember ignition

  • Checking attics, crawlspaces, and concealed voids for slow smoldering fires that can flare hours later

  • Extinguishing spot fires started by embers

  • Continuing foam or water application to vulnerable areas as winds persist

Jon Schibsted, a former career firefighter and Hazmat specialist, describes the problem this way:

“Far too often, firefighters work hard to save a neighborhood, then must leave to chase the fire front, only to see the homes they fought so hard to protect ignite in the rearview mirror or later learn that the neighborhood they protected burned because there was no resources to stay watch for flare-ups”

Private firefighting fills those gaps of staying behind to help protect the neighborhood after municipal fire leaves. 

Security Presence and Deterrence of Looting

Large evacuations unfortunately create opportunities for theft and vandalism. Uniformed private firefighters in marked vehicles provide:

  • Visible deterrence to looters or trespassers around homes, businesses, schools, and infrastructure

  • Eyes on your property or facility while law enforcement focuses on evacuation routes and traffic control

  • The ability to quickly report suspicious activity or damaged access points to law enforcement or ownership

While their primary mission is fire protection, simply having trained personnel on site adds a layer of security when the property would otherwise be vulnerable.

Private vs Public Firefighters

Private and public firefighters fight against the fire in different ways

  • Public agencies: fight the entire incident, protect whole communities, manage evacuations, and work to contain the fire.

  • Private fire departments: focus on specific homes, commercial buildings, private school campuses, and critical infrastructure sites. They are able to spend more time on detailed preparation, hardening, and post fire monitoring

For anyone who wants to go deeper into how to defend against fires, the following links might be helpful

Triston Radant
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