The producers were motivated to make this film following the tragic death of Detroit firefighter Walter Harris, who perished fighting an arson fire in an abandoned house in 2008.
This movie was partially funded by way of Kickstarter where 1758 people invested $119,547. This money represented approximately 30% of the total costs and was needed in order to complete post-production in time for the 2012 festival season.
Detroit has more than 80,000 vacant houses within its city limits which are frequently targets for arson. The Mayor's office came up with a plan to tear down the vacant houses, however, since 2005 the city has only been able to afford to demolish approximately 3000 houses per year.
Detroit has, per capita, one of the highest arson and fire rates of any city in the world.