LA millionaire slammed for offering ‘any amount’ for private firefighters to protect his mansion in Palisades fire
They’re smoking mad about his “entitlement.”
A millionaire Los Angeles CEO posted a message online offering to pay private firefighters “any amount” to protect his luxury home from the Palisades wildfire — sparking outrage over “resource” hogging as neighbors’ homes burned.
Keith Wasserman, co-founder of real estate investment company Gelt Venture Partners, posted the “tone deaf” hunt for his own private smoke eaters on X Tuesday as the rapidly-spreading blaze ripped through the area.
“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.
Critics quickly got fiery over the viral tweet.
“Incredible nerve,” wrote one observer, 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.”
Other users slammed the entrepreneur for assuming he was entitled to special treatment.
“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?” wrote a critic, who goes by Renny.
“If you find yourself tweeting for private firefighters to protect your property, you should probably question what you have become as a human being,” another commenter fumed.
Wasserman — whose post raked in more than 900,000 views — later fired back calling his critics “trolls!” and clarifying that he had already evacuated.
“Mama, I’m going viral!” he wrote — before deleting the tweet.
More than 30,000 California residents were forced to evacuate as the massive wildfire ripped through the Los Angeles area Wednesday.
In 2019, private firefighting companies began offering “on-call” wildfire protection to wealthy Californians as the number and intensity of fires increased.
The Southern California wildfires had torn through more than 15,000 acres of land Wednesday afternoon.
Cybertruck Owner Who Decried Taxes Mocked for Begging for Help as California Wildfire Threatens His Property
A West Coast-based real estate mogul and Elon Musk fan named Keith Wasserman triggered a tidal wave of schadenfreude on social media after begging for "private firefighters" to come "protect our home" in the city as it's menaced by raging wildfires.
Los Angeles has been battling with several out-of-control fires this week, prompting evacuations. Well over a thousand structures have burned down already, and fires are expected to grow due to growing winds.
In a Wednesday tweet, Wasserman begged for help, asking if anybody had "access to private firefighters to protect our home in Pacific Palisades."
"Need to act fast here," he wrote. "All neighbors houses burning. Will pay any amount. Thank you."
But Wasserman didn't get much pity online. Instead, he was swiftly mocked for asking for special treatment while thousands of Californians had no choice but to leave their homes behind — especially because, netizens were quick to point, a mere three months ago, Wasserman begged president-elect Donald Trump to cut taxes.
"Homeboy went from 'Real estate ballers don’t pay taxes' to 'will pay anything for private firefighters' real quick," one user wrote in a Threads post.
The ensuing media coverage appears to have been too much for Wasserman, who promptly deactivated his X account. That's despite praising X owner Elon Musk for purportedly bringing "free speech" to the platform just days earlier and calling the Tesla Cybertruck — which he appears to own himself — "one badass machine."
Wasserman's anti-tax posts got special attention, since one purpose of taxation is to pay for services and programs including fire departments. Specifically, residents in Los Angeles also pay a special tax for essential fire suppression and emergency medical services.
"Avoiding taxes so you can afford private firefighters whilst your neighbors burn," another user tweeted. "Capitalist dystopia."
"'I will pay any amount for a private service that helps only me, but I will pay nothing for a public service that helps everyone,'" one Bluesky user wrote mockingly.
Other users poked fun at Wasserman for becoming the poster child of late-stage capitalism, the concept that the inequities of modern-day capitalism, including a widening wealth gap and concentration of power, have reached their final and most exploitative stage. (Meanwhile, ultra-rich preppers are building bunkers to save themselves from a crisis of their own making.)
All the mockery didn't go unnoticed.
"So here are all the trolls!" Wasserman tweeted in response, before deactivating his account. "Hello trolls!"
Besides arguing that he was only "trying to protect homes," though, Wasserman didn't have much to add to the conversation.
A mere three days ago, long before the wildfires started engulfing the Los Angeles area, the real estate investor tweeted that "Pacific Palisades is the most hidden gem neighborhood in LA."
Now that the specific neighborhood is being evacuated while being surrounded by fierce flames, another user was quick to point out the irony of the situation.
"This didn’t age well," another user responded.
And even if he did manage to buy his way to private firefighting services, others pointed out, it's nearly impossible to entirely cut yourself off from common resources.
"Even if you *do* manage to find private firefighters, you’re going to have to find a water source," posted another critic. "They all want to disappear on a lifeboat and leave the rest of us to drown or burn. But ultimately there is no durable lifeboat without 'the rest of us.'"
We were unable to reach Wasserman due to him suspending his account.
More on the fires: NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Evacuated as Los Angeles Burns
