The Station fire that lasted for over a month has burned away a vast part of Angeles Crest national park. It had thousands of firefighters involved to contaminate it; unfortunately, we lost a lot of firefighters to those terrible fires. Wildlife has suffered greatly; massive fires relocated vast amount of animals and destroyed their homes and forests. Fire, typically touched off by lightning strikes, has always been part of the life cycle of the wilderness here and elsewhere. Most wildlife and landscape eventually come back. People and animals of that are were under threat and sadly some of inhabitants were not ready to leave their houses. A multiagency team of state and federal forest and wildlife representatives removed a colony of mountain yellow-legged tadpoles, endangered in Southern California, from a tributary of the San Gabriel River before rock and debris unleashed by fall and winter rains imperil their creek side habitat. Some of endangered species were taken to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and San Diego Zoo. Animals had to wait about a year to finally return to their home, wilderness. These fires brought dry climate and dirty air to the habitants of those burned areas. Created drought may bring hanger among species that live in those station fire areas.
The Station Fire burned on the slopes of Mount Wilson, threatening numerous television, radio and cellular telephone antennas on the summit, as well as the Mount Wilson Observatory, which includes several historically significant telescopes and multi-million-dollar astronomical facilities operated by UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley and Georgia State University. My analysis focus on a rapid spread of fire and the danger to the major population centers, major roadways, schools, hospitals, and parks. My first map shows the aspect of LA county, so it can be visible how the fire might have spread. From my aspect map it is clear to me that at the beginning phase of station fire, fire got spread because of the wind was initially blowing NORTHWEST, then NORTH, and later east. But in my opinion the wind aspect was not the only reason fire got spread. Lets take a look at my slope map.
Above is the SLOPE map of Los Angeles County, and below is the HILLSHADE map of Los Angeles County. From these maps we can analyze that the geographical location also hugely influenced on the fast spread of fire. As you can see, this fire started in mountains where we have lots of hills and dales. When the fire is on the bottom of a mountain or hill, with a little help of wind can easily spread uphill burning everything on its way. Mountain ranges are very windy and fire can spread much faster then in flat areas.
The Station fire, which was named for its start on Aug. 26 near a ranger station, has destroyed several dozen homes and caused the deaths of two Los Angeles County firefighters. It ranks as the largest fire in the modern history of Los Angeles County. It has burned more than 160,000 acres, or 250 square miles, an area nearly the size of Chicago, and has cut off access to one of Los Angeles’s most popular wilderness getaways, about 20 miles north of downtown. But the fire may be best remembered for the towering, thundercloud-like plume that loomed for days over the city. Thousands of gallons water was dumped on burning areas, hundreds of helicopters were flying above the fires, trying to hold its spread as much as possible. Hundreds of houses got black ash cover near those areas. People were staying home not to breathe those ashes. It was horrible like in Hollywood movies. Every home had to change or renew its air conditioning system in order to get rid of those ashes. People and animals were suffocating. Dirty air was not enough; scientists were scared of rains to create mudslides and debris. Later rain also came and people living in La Crescent, Foothill, La Canada, and other areas had to evacuate for couple of days. Some of them later found their homes half way in debris, the scene was terrifying. That year many people became homeless and some of them suffered trying to fight a nature.
The Station Fire was fully contained (line around the perimeter) at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16, 2009. Following moderate rainfall in the San Gabriel Mountains earlier in the week, fire crews were able to hike in and contain the remaining portion of the fire in the San Gabriel Wilderness area.Given the unprecedented size of the Station Fire, full control (fire out with no heat) may not occur for several weeks or months. Sustained rain events and the onset of winter conditions at higher elevations will assist firefighters in achieving full control of the Station Fire. Southern California frequently experiences quick-moving brush fires and grass fires, which burn in finer (thinner) fuels. The Station Fire, burning on National Forest lands, is truly a forest fire, especially at the higher elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains where dense stands of timber retain heat despite suppression efforts.
Officials said they determined that the largest brush fire in the history of Los Angeles County was the result of arson after investigators examined forensic evidence from scorched landscape off Angeles Crest Highway, north of La Canada Flintridge. The spot is believed to be the source of origin of the Station fire.
Bibliography:
1. Ari B. Bloomekatz, Andrew Blankstein and Cara Mia DiMassa, "Station fire an act of arson, sheriff's officials say", September 04, 2009, <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/04/local/me-fire4>
2. Knoll, Corinna; & Becerra, Hector, "TV, cellphone signals from Mt. Wilson at risk", August 31, 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Fire_(2009)#cite_note-station06-37>
3. K. Giao, “Station Fire”, August 26th, 2009, <http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/>
