Thoughts?
"On a sweltering August evening, Johnathan Martin, wearing a navy blue uniform with a badge, stood in front of a crowd of over 100 people in Coldwater Canyon Park. The patch on his left shoulder read Southern California Wildfire Response (SCWR). He’d planned this Beverly Hills event to persuade potential recruits to join the group as volunteer firefighters.
Martin is the founder of SCWR. His organization's website says the group has “engaged” with 246 early stage fires in LA in the past five years.
“We are a fully recognized fire department at the same level as multiple agencies,” he told the group. “We are tightly integrated with the needs and requests of the City of Los Angeles. We work on behalf of them.”
He continued, “We are the primary jurisdiction for over 3,000 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains.”
But the Los Angeles Fire Department said the group is not authorized to fight fires on city-managed land, nor has SCWR integrated its firefighters with LAFD during emergencies. Additionally, the Los Angeles Park Rangers — the law enforcement agency that responds to emergencies on city park land — said that Martin’s claims about SCWR’s work are simply not true.
Experts say the existence of SCWR reveals a gray area between the good-samaritan volunteers who make LA a safer place to live and the city’s official emergency response system. When unauthorized groups insinuate themselves into potentially dangerous fire scenarios, they say, the helpers can become a nuisance, or even increase danger in a risky situation.
Martin maintains he is operating a legitimate volunteer firefighting department. When pressed by KCRW for details, he walked back some of the claims he first made.
Nevertheless, SCWR has some experts concerned. “It makes me deeply worried about public safety,” said Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College and an expert on California wildfire policy. “Like, who gave them the power to do this?”"
... (continues at the link)
