Hiring a private fire crew costs thousands of dollars a day, and most work through government contracts or with insurance companies. Some wealthy property owners are calling them in directly.

Outside one mansion in a Palisades neighborhood with little or no fire damage, two men — who declined to provide their names — said they often contract with city governments, but this afternoon were protecting a single house. They said they did not know who the owner was, only that their company, National Wildfire Protection Service, had dispatched them there.