10-November-2007, 02:04 AM
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Order of Kilopi
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 8,580
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An emerging industry, perhaps--- privatized emergency response:
Quote:
November 7, 2007
Naomi Klein: ...And what we saw during the California wildfires was something really extraordinary. People have gone back to their neighborhoods now...and are asking questions about why some of those houses were saved...in some cases, you can’t explain it, you know, it’s mysterious. But in some cases, it’s not mysterious. The reason why some houses were saved and others were not is because the people who lived in those saved houses pay insurance to the company...[that] offers privatized fire response...around $19,000 a year in insurance premiums. And as part of this special service, they get men in fire trucks, with the red hats and the bright red fire trucks---they look, for all intents and purposes, like real firefighters---spraying down their homes with fire retardant...simultaneous to the wildfires...a company called Sovereign Deed...run by people straight out of the military and intelligence who now have gone into the private sector...announced plans to set up a kind of a privatized FEMA in Pellston, Michigan...turning Pellston into their national disaster response center---once again, only for their members...Pay your $50,000 membership and $15,000 annual fees, and this company is stockpiling drugs, fuel, water, and for an extra premium payment, you can get a VIP rescue in the midst of some sort of unnamed disaster...
DN
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Quote:
November 9, 2007
...Until 1865, when the Metropolitan Fire Bridge Act was passed in the U.K., insurance companies had their own firefighters and were responsible for protecting their customers' homes and other buildings. That was the case in other countries as well, including the U.S. Customers were given medallions to place on their homes, and firefighters would look for their insurance company's "firemark'' before extinguishing a blaze.
Some victims of the California fires may wish they had their own firemarks...
Bloomberg
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