Kim Kardashian West, left, and Kanye West arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York. Image: AP/Invision
California wildfires affected homeowners famous and ordinary alike — but it seems those who belong to the 1 percent had a leg up on preserving their homes.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West allegedly called in private firefighters to stop the blaze from decimating their mansion in the gated community of Hidden Hills in Los Angeles County, reported TMZ yesterday, Nov. 12.
Kardashian shared on Nov. 9, Thursday via Instagram Stories that she and her family evacuated from their property before the Woolsey Fire could reach them. She updated the next day in a tweet that the flames reached the property but got stopped.
The team hired by Kardashian and West reportedly had their own hoses and dug ditches to make a firebreak, according to TMZ’s sources. Neighbors were reportedly grateful to the couple for sparing their homes as well. The mansion borders a field and should it have caught fire, the flames supposedly would have spread to the rest of the neighborhood.
Private firefighters are just another privilege that the elite have. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2007 that insurance company AIG offers a Wildfire Protection Unit exclusively to upscale residential areas such as Malibu and to homes worth upward of $1 million.
The premium reported then is $10,000 a year, but with a home worth $60 million — as per Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner — the celebrity couple certainly has some thousands of dollars to spare for their safety. Niña V. Guno/JB
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