Firefighter Sam Crays was in the San Diego community of Rancho Santa Fe, where the median home price is $2.4 million, spraying retardant as a wildfire spread to nearby brush.
``The vegetation lit on fire, and it was five feet from the house,'' said Crays, 28. He turned his hose on the flames, and the home was saved.
Crays doesn't work for a local fire department or the California Department of Forestry. He works for American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer. If you're a client with a home threatened by California's worst wildfires in four years, you're getting service your next-door neighbor may envy.
``What we're trying to do here is provide our policyholders an additional level of protection,'' said Stan Rivera, director of wildfire protection for AIG Private Client Group. The average home insured by the unit is valued at $1.7 million....MORE
