The fire retardent gels/foams are impressive products. Of course, it would be folly for any homeowner to think that they're protected just because they have a few cans of this stuff in their garage. As with most disasters, it's best to have multiple responses/preps.

I'm reminded of a couple recent wildfires here in Southern California. One of them started near a large housing development mid-morning on a weekday, so many of those homes were empty and totally unprepared for the fire because there was no fire at all when people headed off to work. There was a massive traffic jam of people trying to get back to their homes to grab stuff and pets, but vehicular traffic was prevented from re-entering because the flames were already so close to the homes.

There was a wildfire situation near Yorba Linda where very low water pressure was an issue. I think a pumping station was overrun by fire and so a whole neighborhood uphill from there was basically without water. Anyway, so anyone depending on using their garden hose to apply a product like this could be so out of luck.

One thing I'm not sure if a product like addresses are bigger openings, like an attic vent, where wind-driven embers could enter and how many homes in SoCal caught on fire. I doubt it's viscose enough to bridge a fairly wide gap like that. Well, a prepared homeowner would've already put fine mesh screens over bigger openings like that to catch embers before they entered the home.