The woods are burning, alright

Here is a long long long article about fire fighting in some parts of America.I'll wait while you read it.
Crikey it's long, huh?
This is a truly amazing and somewhat unnerving look at the future which is where America lives, from our perspective on the edge of the universe.

The key innovation by Chief Sam’s own employer, Firebreak Spray Systems of Hood River, Oregon, was to work for the insurance industry, not the government. Founded by entrepreneur Jim Aamodt, who invented the sprayers that keep produce fresh at the supermarket, and Stan Brock, a former tackle for the New Orleans Saints, Firebreak has a proprietary system to coat houses with liquefied Phos-Chek—the same chemical retardant used by the Forest Service and first developed in the 1960s by Monsanto. In 2005, Firebreak went to work for AIG’s insurance division, now called Chartis Insurance

The article gets a little bogged down by the descriptions of what happened but the main point stands.
If you're not an AIG customer these guys will let your house burn.
It's sort of summed up in this passage in the article

We had barely stepped into the parking lot when a woman came running up, begging for help. Suddenly, we were all running into the Rite-Aid. A girl in line for the register had collapsed. She was lying on the floor, surrounded by a crowd. George kneeled down, speaking to her in Spanish. She was having an asthma attack, he said. He was about to move her when three LAFD firefighters, responding to someone’s 911 call, rushed through the door. Three men in yellow looked at three other men in yellow. There was an awkward pause. “We’re gonna let you guys have it,” George said, and we left to find the fire.

It's a tad unnerving.