Lab 7

For this project, I chose to address the communities and cities affected by the rapid expansion of the Los Angeles Station Fire of 2009 from August 28 to September 2. While it could be said that all of greater Los Angeles and even surrounding areas were affected by this wildfire, several specific cities were hit hardest as the fire approached their boundaries. This was the largest fire ever for the Angeles National Forest as well as the largest in modern Los Angeles history. 209 structures were destroyed, including almost 90 homes (http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9640/). It cost more than 90 million dollars just to fight it, with almost 1000 firefighters assigned by September 15th (http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9535/).

The Station Fire tore through the Angeles National Forest area north of La Cañada, Tujunda, Altadena, and neighboring cities. In only two days, from early morning on the 28th (green patch on map) to early morning on the 31 (pink patch), the fire area multiplied intensely. By 9:00 PM on the 31, the fire had already consumed 105,296 acres of forest land and destroyed 53 structures while only 5% contained (http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9360/). Though I show the fire’s progression until only September 2, it was not declared fully contained until 7:00 PM on October 16 following a moderate rainstorm which allowed firemen to hike into the forest and contain what little had not burnt out (http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/).

In creating this map, it was important to show the hillshade gradients in order to understand how and what allowed the fire to expand in the way it did. We can see that the forest area north of the affected cities climbs up into the San Gabriel Mountains. Comparing the shape of expansion to the underlying terrain (i.e. various valleys and peaks) helps explain how the fire traveled throughout the area. The different colored patches represent the chronological expansion of the fire. In 5 stages throughout 4 days, the fire exploded through the region. From the original relatively symmetrical patch, the direction of growth is clear as it climbs up the sides of nearby peaks. The light green region to the south of the fire zone indicates populated regions within Los Angeles, including the labeled cities reported to have been most at risk and experiencing the highest levels of evacuation orders. It is interesting to see how the fire was kept to the very most edge of these zones, suggesting firefighters worked hardest to keep the flames from consuming city regions. It is also interesting to see that there are actually areas where the fire zones overlap slightly with populated places.

During the span of the forest fire, much of La Tujunda, La Crescenta, La Cañada Flintridge and Glendale were under large-area mandatory and voluntary evacuations. For months after the fire, these cities and surrounding areas were at extreme risk of flash flooding, mudslides, and debris flow as the rainy season approached (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/rain-coming.html). Also affecting these communities was the dangerous air quality. At one point, the air quality index was set at 398. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/08/air-quality-at-hazardous-levels-in-foothill-cities.html).

This fire burned out of control for weeks. Many believe this could have been avoided had a certain law that prevented airborne firefighting during the night been overturned beforehand. These laws prevented firefighters from addressing the blaze at its onset, instead opting to hit it in the early morning. In addition, fire officials admit to have miscalculated the strength of the fire and were caught unprepared on the second morning. By that night, the fire was blazing unstoppably into the forest. One spokeswoman noted that “[t]hey didn’t really hit [the state agency] up for heavy resources until the morning of the third day” (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fire27-2009sep27,0,6025715.story)

Works Cited

Bloomekatz, Ari B. "Rainstorm Heading to Southern California Raises Mudslide Concerns [Updated]." L.A. NOW. The Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

Lin, Rong-Kong. "Los Angeles Fire Map: Mt. Wilson, Tujunga, Acton, Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre." Los Angeles Times: Local. The Los Angeles Times, 11 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

Pringle, Paul. "Station Fire's Strength Was Miscalculated." Los Angeles Times: Local. The Los Angeles Times, 27 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

Seib, Al. "Air Quality at Hazardous Levels in Foothill Cities." Los Angeles Times: Environment. The Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

"Station Fire Evening Update Aug. 31, 2009." The Incident Information System: Current Incidents. InciWeb, 31 Oct. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

"Station Fire News Release Sept. 15, 2009." The Incident Information System: Current Incidents. InciWeb, 15 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

"Station Fire Update Sept. 27 2009" The Incident Information System: Current Incidents. Inciweb, 27 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

"Station Fire." The Incident Information System: Current Incidents. InciWeb, 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 27 May 2010. .

http://gis.ats.ucla.edu//Mapshare/Default.cfm

http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.htm?startbottom=5.0&starttop=85.0&startleft=-170&startright=-60.0&limitbottom=-85.0&limittop=85.0&limitleft=-179.5&limitright=179.5

Just for fun, here is a cool timelapse video of the fire from far off in LA.