A Los Angeles millionaire CEO sparked outrage for a ‘tone deaf’ post asking for help from ‘private firefighters’ to protect his Pacific Palisades mansion while emergency services scrambled to help residents as the area burned to the ground.
Keith Wasserman, co-founder of real estate investment firm Gelt Venture Partners, posted on X pleading for help as a massive wildfire tore through the hillside.
‘Does anyone have access to private firefighters to protect our home in Pacific Palisades? Need to act fast here. All neighbors houses burning. Will pay any amount. Thank you,’ he wrote, before receiving backlash from what he called ‘trolls’.
‘Incredible nerve,’ wrote commenter Sam Vance. ‘His family is evacuated and he’s trying to hire private firefighters to risk their lives to save a home he most certainly has insured. Incredibly tone deaf.’
Another user, going by Jacquie, weighed in: ‘If you find yourself tweeting for private firefighters to protect your property, you should probably question what you have become as a human being.’
User Renny added: ‘So you’re suggesting that potentially lifesaving resources (even if ‘private’) should be diverted to save your house because you’re rich while tens of thousands of people try to evacuate?’
Mr Wasserman clapped back that he had left ‘hours ago’, noting that he was only ‘trying to protect homes’.
The enormous blaze has already forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, some of whom abandoned their cars and fled on foot to safety with roads blocked.
California governor Gavin Newsom said ‘many structures’ have already been ‘destroyed’ in Pacific Palisades. Officials have not given an exact number, but said about 30,000 residents are under evacuation orders and 13,000 structures under threat.
Keith Wasserman said he was only ‘trying to protect homes’ amid mounting backlash
Mr Wasserman posted on X after fleeing his own home during a devastating wildfire
Firefighters fight the flames from the Palisades Fire burning a house during a powerful windstorm on January 8
Manish Kapoor wrote: ‘A tone-deaf, public display of ‘rich privilege’, in a time of community crisis, is a curious choice, but ok.’
Another user wrote: ‘This reminds me of the Morning Show – where the rich guy gets crap for hiring people to defend his own house while everyone else’s burns down.’
James Line shared Wasserman’s post with a screenshot from Titanic, a passenger asking ‘Will the lifeboats be seated according to class?’
The post was liked more than 16,000 times.
‘This guy is evacuated, he wants someone to save his property instead of poor people lives,’ wrote another user.
The original post has been seen more than 900,000 times at the time of writing and has received nearly 500 replies.
Wasserman went on to joke: ‘Mama I’m going viral!’
He later added: ‘So here are all the trolls! Hello trolls!’
Some did go on to express sympathy for Wasserman as the raging wildfire burns through more than 2,900 acres of Los Angeles land at an extraordinary rate.
‘You guys are alive. That is what you have to focus on right now,’ wrote Roxanne Hoge.
‘It’s so sad you pay exorbitant taxes and this is what you have to do to save your family. I hope someone helps!’ added user Balthazar.
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People watch the smoke and flames from the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 7
At least 30,000 residents are now under mandatory evacuation orders
Some users said they doubted whether private firefighters even existed in the US.
Private firefighting companies played a key role in battling fires in California vineyards in 2021.
But authorities were eventually forced to step in and detained the private firefighters, accusing them of lighting dangerous backfires and failing to leave an evacuated area.
Firefighter Ryan Bellanca and his crew denied the allegations, but admitted his team failed to advise Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency, that it was in the evacuated area, as required by law.
The ferocious wildfire in a Los Angeles suburb, home to many Hollywood celebrities, has devoured buildings and sparked panicked evacuations since Tuesday, as hurricane-force winds tore through the region.
Tankers full of water had been dousing the inferno from the skies all afternoon, but all aircraft were later grounded amid deteriorating wind conditions and visibility.
Frightened residents abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the upscale Pacific Palisades area, fleeing on foot from the almost 3,000-acre blaze engulfing an area packed with multimillion-dollar homes in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Firefighters used bulldozers to push dozens of vehicles – including expensive models such as BMWs, Teslas and Mercedes – to one side, leaving many crumpled and with their alarms blaring. Some celebrities posted comments and pictures on social media platforms.
Elderly patients are quickly evacuated into emergency vehicles as embers and flames approach during the Eaton fire in Pasadena, California on January 7
Firefighters work to extinguish flames as the Eaton Fire burns in Pasadena, California, U.S. January 7
Flames from the Palisades Fire burns a home during a powerful windstorm on January 8
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said despite the chaotic evacuation, there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Residents at the Pasadena Park Healthcare & Wellness Center were being evacuated today as the Eaton Fire grew nearby, KNBC reported.
Velma Wright, 102, was evacuated from a care facility as embers and flames approached in Pasadena, an AFP photographer saw.
Actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his home as he got ready to evacuate and shortly afterward said all the fire alarms were going off.
‘I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,’ Woods said.
The exact cause of the fire is so far unknown, officials said.
