Private Firefighter Crews Save Wealthy Homes From Wildfires As It Becomes Harder To Save The Poor’s

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/30/2699911/privatized-wildfire-fighting-inequality/

By Rebecca Leber on September 30, 2013

Over the last decade, wealthy Americans living in wildfire-prone areas have started turning to private contract services to keep their homes safe. Reuters describes how niche insurance policies are now sending private firefighter crews to protect multi-million-dollar homes from damage. One of AIG’s insurance plans for Western residents will preemptively send a crew to cover a home with fire-resistant foam when a wildfire approaches, at a cost of $7,000 annually.

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The growth of private firefighting only underscores how climate change leaves low-income Americans (and globally, poor countries) the most vulnerable. Hurricane Sandy was just one recent example of extreme weather leaving low-income and minority communities behind in the aftermath of rebuilding. Colorado’s extreme flooding likewise has destroyed farms, motor homes, and immigrants’ livelihoods.

As a drier climate pushes wildfires to new extremes, the price tag to stop those fires will only grow. That fact — combined with budget cuts to the U.S. Forest Service — has meant that for the second year in a row, the federal government ran out of funds for fighting wildfires. Sequestration has cut $115 million from wildfire suppression, and another $100 million from a reserve fund. As a result, the Forest Service has had to divert millions from preventing wildfires to begin with to battle massive blazes like the Yosemite Rim Fire.