• Insurance companies hire private businesses to proactively protect properties from wildfires.
• The CEO of one company told BI its strategies include using fire-blocking gel and cleaning gutters.
• He said companies like his can help solve the insurance crisis, as they focus only on economic loss.

Insurance companies are hiring private firms to protect customer properties before wildfires roll in by taking measures such as applying protective gels and removing combustibles to try to fire-proof structures.

David Torgerson is the CEO of Wildfire Defense Systems, a private company that contracts with insurance carriers to protect homes and businesses from fires like those ripping through Southern California. He said that Wildfire Defense Systems works exclusively with insurers, partnering with dozens of carriers across 22 states to protect structures.

"We are typically working hours in advance, or days in advance of the fire passing over a property, and we call that the presuppression," he told Business Insider. "We're preparing the property to survive the amount of time that the fire is in proximity to the structure, and then we quickly come back in after the fire is passed to secure the property."

He said that his employees — who, unlike first responders, are not focused on saving lives or containing the blaze — are "actively working" to help battle the fires in Southern California.

In addition to applying fire-blocking gels and getting rid of flammable materials, Wildfire Defense System's strategies include cleaning gutters and operating sprinkler systems, a company fact sheet says. The famed Getty Villa has so far survived this week's blaze in part because of similar fire-mitigation efforts.

Once a fire passes through a neighborhood, company personnel will return to insured homes to put out any simmering spot fires and assess other risks, Torgerson said. By law, his company can only protect homes covered by insurance policies that include its services, he said.

In recent years, insurance companies have cut back on coverage in California, largely because of wildfire risk. In 2023, State Farm said it was no longer accepting new homeowner insurance applications in the state. It also ended coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments last year, including some in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood devastated by the most recent blazes.

Preliminary estimates have put insured losses at more than $20 billion, a record high for California. Real estate and insurance experts previously told BI that the current wildfires will likely exacerbate the state's insurance crisis.

Torgerson said that qualified insurance resources like his are part of the solution to coverage woes because they mainly try to mitigate the economic cost of a fire.

"Our job really is to help policyholders and insurance carriers keep insurance available in the marketplace," he said. "If wildfires are going to get steadily more intense and more frequent, the scale of our operations have increased."

With some of the nation's wealthiest ZIP codes on fire — in Pacific Palisades, for example, the average home price is $4.5 million, per Realtor.com — controversy has erupted around who has access to fire safety resources. When a Los Angeles-based investor and self-described entrepreneur posted a request on his X account to hire private firefighters for his home, many responded with outrage in the comments. The user, Keith Wasserman, has since suspended his X account.

Torgerson told BI that his services are very different from private firefighters, who he said comprise a tiny sliver of the market. Wildfire Defense Systems does not have contact with individual homeowners and protects properties based on risk, not home value. He also said his employees meet all the training requirements of the National Wildlife Coordinating Group and are members of the firefighters union.

"It only really comes up when the fires are occurring in Southern California, the LA basin," he said of private firefighters, who he said are not subject to the same training. Torgerson said his services are part of standard insurance policies with the affiliated companies, though he declined to disclose which insurers use his services.

In 2021, State Farm said in a press release that it was partnering with Wildfire Defense Systems and the service would be added to all non-tenant homeowner policies in California, Arizona, and Washington. Chubb also partners with Wildfire Defense Systems in California and other states, according to its website, and says that policyholders can opt to enroll in the protective services.

Representatives from State Farm and Chubb did not respond to a request for comment from BI.