The Station Fire of 2009 that occurred in the Western United States was started by an arsonist in the Angeles National Forest of California just north of LA county. The map below shows the county parks that stretch through the map extent overlain with the extent of the fire. As one can see from the map a majority of the spreading of the fire did occur in LA county parks surrounding the city. The Station Fire is considered the largest fire in LA County history, burning a total extent of 161,189 acres or 252 square miles. While the fire was mainly contained within the national forest this is still a major blow to the diversity and ecology of the national forest surrounding LA. The fire did eventually destroy several structure and encroach on communities but its massive impact was in the national forest land. 

 

The map also shows the encroachment of the fire on the highways system supporting the LA County area. The Angeles Crest Highway was right in the path of the fire and provided a confusing setting in which to fight the fire for the hotshot teams. The highway's pavement wasn't much effected but many of the guard rails and signage was severely damaged during the course of the fire and rendered the highway unusable until the DOT could get in to repair the damages. In the south west corner of the fires extent you can see where the highway has been included in the red amoeba of the fires extent.

The map above is the second one completed for the discussion of the Station Fire, as you can immediately tell the red area is the extent of the fire and I have included in white the areas that are highly populated in LA County with additional city tags to accompany the areas. The total structural damage from the fire totaled 209 buildings, 89 of which were homes. From the looking at the map it becomes evident that the populated county perimeter overlaps slightly with the area the fire inhabited. Towards the beginning of the fire approximately 12-15 homes were destroyed and the potential of harm to 12,000 more was predicted. Luckily the firefighters were able to somewhat control and minimize the loss of structure from the fire.

As having mentioned before the fire was believed to have been started by someone, there was evidence of a substance later found at the source that would have helped accelerate the flames. Unfortunately for all there were two fireman on duty at the station where the fire was set and were tragically killed when trying to escape the blaze. Their truck drove off a cliff due to limited visibility and both the men lost their lives. As such there was a homicide investigation into who started the fire.

Overall this fire is one of the worst LA county has ever seen, the total burned area is unthinkable, the habitats and ecosystems that will have to repair themselves and try to flourish again is unimaginable. Despite having lost several lives and an number of structures the damage caused by the fire could have been much worse, had the fire spread more rapidly any further it would have started encroaching on heavily populated areas and wrecked havoc through many a community. Luckily through the effort of the state and the fire department the fire was relatively directed and contained.






Bibliography:

Garrison, Jessica, "Station fire claims 18 homes and two firefighters", Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2009, Accessed March 4, 2014.

Molina, Genaro, "LA County fire doubles in size; more homes destroyed; Mt. Wilson threatened", Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2009, Accessed March 4, 2014.


Angeles National Forest, "Station Fire Recovery", United States Department of Agriculture, July 1, 2011. Accessed March 4, 2014.

Wikipedia, "2009 California Wildfires", Wikipedia, Sept. 21, 2013. Accessed March 4, 2014.

Report of the Review Panel, "Station Fire Initial Attack Review", Fire and Aviation Management, November 13, 2009, p. 1-72.