No doubt many of you have read about the hard time financially strapped homeowners are having in selling their homes because of the depressed prices and the subprime mortgage scam that is biting many people on the behind. My concern is that some homeowners are going to be come sufficiently desperate to try to solve their financial problems with a match and container of accelerant, something I believe the fire service as a whole should be watching for. After all, the safety of the firefighters who respond to the calls is at stake. In such a situation precipitated by the housing crisis, once a firefighter has the full picture of what he or she is dealing with as the nature and type of fire, how it got started, that firefighter will better be able to do his job more effectively. The houses any fire dept. line officer and his people should be keeping an extra watchful eye on are those about to undergo foreclosure proceedings, with the present owners becoming increasingly desperate as their finances go to hell in a handbasket. Especially to be watched for is any unusual spike in the number of structure fires in a department's service area during this time of economic stress, as for some homeowners, foreclosure could well be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Someone losing both their job, and their home could be the very red flag to be watched for. Thus, the consequences of corporate greed DOES have a way of producing collateral damage, not only for people losing their jobs, and their homes, but for the emergency workers who have to go clean up the mess.