A Los Angeles startup is selling canyon homeowners what amounts to a personal fire station: 50 gallons of professional-grade retardant, a 100-foot hose, and a pump that can coat a roofline 35 feet up in under 15 minutes.

Matador Fire, founded by LA native Nate Snyder, lists Bel Air and Beverly Hills among its active service areas and offers wildfire defense packages priced from $499 to roughly $4,500 a year for full-stack protection, according to the company's website.

Snyder sold his pool business about five months after the Jan. 7, 2025, Palisades Fire to build the company, according to a WestsideToday profile published Monday, Aug. 3. On the night the fire broke out, friends fleeing mandatory evacuation orders took shelter in his home.

"During the Palisades Fire, my home became a refuge for some of my closest friends," Snyder wrote on the company's site. "Wildfire protection shouldn't be a luxury for the few — it must be a necessity for the many."

What the company offers

Matador Fire's flagship product is its Wildfire Defense System, priced at $1,800 per year. A 50-gallon barrel of retardant connects to a gas or electric pump and 100-foot hose stored on the property. Homeowners deploy it before evacuating, coating vulnerable surfaces in what the company calls a "fire shield." Biannual maintenance and retardant refills after use during a mandatory evacuation are included. The company says the retardant is non-toxic per EPA standards and effective wet or dry.

A second tier, starting at $499, sends a crew to apply retardant to surrounding vegetation before fire season. The third service is home hardening: installation of WDM 98 stainless steel mesh with 1/16-inch openings over foundation, soffit, and gable vents. Matador Fire says the mesh blocks 98% of embers and reduces radiant heat transfer at the opening by about 38%. The mesh complies with California Building Code Chapter 7A, the state standard for ember-resistant construction in wildfire-prone zones, and meets ASTM E2886 testing standards. Home hardening is quoted per vent on site.

The company also offers group rates for HOAs and neighborhood associations.

Why it matters now

The urgency isn't abstract. A UC Merced study, reported by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Aug. 1, found that the share of California homes destroyed by wildfires they contact rose from 3% at the turn of the century to 18% by 2020, despite decades of state home-hardening mandates.

Locally, Beverly Hills' Trousdale neighborhood sits in a "Very High Wildfire Severity Zone" as designated by CAL FIRE. The Beverly Hills Fire Department conducted its first-ever evacuation drill there in November 2025, and the city has since adopted a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, according to the Beverly Press.

Fire Chief Greg Barton said during that November 2025 drill: "When the actual time to evacuate happens, there's not enough time at that point. It's too late to get what you need to evacuate safely."

What hasn't been verified

Matador Fire's claims about its retardant's EPA non-toxicity and third-party environmental testing originate from the company's own materials. No independent verification was available. The Beverly Hills Fire Department and LAPD West Los Angeles Division did not provide comment on the company's services.

Residents interested in a free on-site assessment can contact Matador Fire at 310-426-8088 or visit matadorfire.com. The company is headquartered at 520 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 405, Los Angeles.