When devastating forest fires broke out throughout Los Angeles County This week, David Torgerson’s fire team got to work.

The thousands of city, county and state firefighters sent to fight the fires went where they were needed. However, Torgerson’s Wildfire Defense Systems teams headed toward specific targets. Armed with hoses, fireproofing gel and its own water supply, the Montana-based company contracts with insurance companies to protect the homes of customers who purchase policies that include its services.

“It’s a win-win situation when private firefighters are able to save a home,” said Torgerson, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. The homeowner keeps their house and the insurance company does not have to pay out a large amount for the reconstruction.

“It makes perfect sense,” he said. “It’s always better if the houses and businesses don’t burn down.”

Torgerson’s operation, which has been contracting with insurance companies since 2008 and employing hundreds of firefighters, engineers and other personnel, highlights more than one lesser-known component of wildland firefighting in the United States 7,500 publicly funded firefighters and emergency personnel dispatched to the current wildfires, which have burned more than 30,000 acres and destroyed more than 9,000 structures, a smaller force of hired professionals is available to provide extra hands to insurance companies, wealthy private landowners or government agencies in need.

Their presence is not without controversy. Private firefighters hired directly by homeowners have done this Criticism drawn to exacerbate class differences during disasters. This week, a Pacific Palisades homeowner received backlash for asking for help finding private firefighters to save his home on X, the social media site formerly called Twitter.

“Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home in Pacific Palisades? Action must be taken quickly here. “All the neighboring houses are burning,” he wrote in the now-deleted post. “Pay any amount.”

“The epitome of nervousness and numbness!” someone replied.

In 2018: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West credited private firefighters for saving her $60 million home in the Santa Monica mountains during a wildfire. But those who serve wealthy clients make up only a small portion of non-public firefighters, according to Torgerson.

“The vast majority are contract firefighters hired by the government,” he said. The federal government has been hiring private firefighters to support its own armed forces since the 1980s. According to the National Wildfire Suppression Assn. There are about 250 private fire companies under federal contracts, adding about 10,000 firefighters to the U.S. effort.

Some private fire companies, including Wildfire Defense Systems, are known as qualified insurance resources and are paid by insurance companies to protect their customers’ homes. Wildfire Defense Systems refers to its field responders as private sector wildfire personnel.

Wildfire Defense Systems only works with the insurance industry, but other private fire companies contract with industrial customers such as petrochemical plants and utilities. Wildfire Defense Systems declined to disclose the company’s revenue or fees for its services.

Allied Disaster Defense, a company that sent personnel to the Los Angeles fires, provides services to both property owners and insurance companies. Its website states that its services will “improve the insurability of properties” and “help reduce claims.”

There is also a dedicated page on the website Services for private customersThis includes emergency response and assistance Insurance claims for “wealthy and prominent” customers. The company does not disclose prices for its services and has non-disclosure agreements with its private customers.

Several other private fire companies are based in California including Mt Adams Wildfirethat contracts with government agencies, and UrbnTekwhich serves Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, among others. In addition to spraying fire retardants on trees and brush to stop a progressing fire, the company provides “a double layer of protection by encasing a structure with our fire blanket system.”

Torgerson, a civil engineer with 34 years of experience in emergency services, said he was impressed by the speed of the current wildfires. While it typically takes two to 10 minutes for a fire to engulf a home, the Palisades fire is spreading at a faster rate, he said.

“It’s moving so quickly that it will probably take a minute or two for these fires to move across properties,” he said.

He said his company responded to all 62 wildfires that threatened buildings in California in 2024 and did not lose any property.