Oakland fined this couple $915,000 for preventing fires. That’s 18 times the penalty for actual arson

Imagine buying a piece of property, being ordered by the government to clear it of fire hazards, and then being handed a nearly million-dollar bill by that same government for doing exactly what it asked. It sounds like a dystopian satire of bureaucratic overreach, but for Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner, it is a harrowing…