Written by Amanda Angulo
The privatization of firefighters has had its fair share of turmoil recently as tensions grow between private groups and state-funded firefighters.
Last October, Ryan Bellanca, and his team fought the Glass Fire from destroying a Napa Valley vineyard. However, Bellanca has his own private firefighting company, which was hired specifically by the vineyard to protect their land.
Due to the privatization of this fieldwork in California, Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency, decided to punish the private company and not allow them to finish their job. Authorities from Cal Fire and the Napa County Sheriff’s office had stepped in and detained the private firefighting crew. The reason they claimed for detaining them was based on an accusation that the crew had been lighting backfires and failed to leave the evacuated area.
Bellanca denies the lighting backfires but does admit that his team failed to comply with the requirements of the law, such as advising the Cal Fire team that the fire was in an evacuated area. “But we saved an entire mountain that Cal Fire thought was gone. Cal Fire wants it to be just them. If they can set a precedent by kicking us out, then they can tell anyone to leave” said Bellanca.
In addition, Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero says that the evidence provided by Cal Fire did not meet the requirements to press charges, as there was little evidence to show they actually asked Bellanca to leave and in the Cal Fire report there was no mention of any backfires.
Now with the wildfire season beginning, it is important to allow for these private companies to help put out fires on private property so Cal Fire can have all the resources they need to battle fires endangering entire communities.
