On August 26,
2009, the Angeles National Forest received a call for initial attack reponse to
a fire that had ignited on the forest near the Angeles Crest Fire Station.
The Station Fire
started off Angeles Crest Highway (SR2) approximately one mile above Angeles
Crest Fire Station around 3:30pm. The Station Fire, named because of its
proximity to a nearby USFS Ranger Station has burned over 160,000 arcs of land
within the Angeles National Forest and near surrounding foothill communities of
La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton, Soledad Canyon, Pasadena, Glendale,
and Sierra Madre.
The first map
above is the reference map of the 2009 Station Fire, which shows the attacked
area from August 29 to September 2. On the reference map, the elevation of the
attacked area is also presented. Although we can see that the fire mainly
occurred on a higher elevation area, and the onset of winter conditions at
higher elevation could assist firefighters in achieving full control of the
Station Fire, the higher elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains where dense
stands of timber retained heat despite suppression efforts. Moreover, the
naturally steep and extremely rugged terrain had also caused difficulties to
the firefighters to gain control of the Station Fire.
The second map
above is a thematic map which shows the boundaries of school districts relatively
to the locations of the Station Fire. We can see that the most affected school
districts were Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School, La Canada Unified School, and
Los Angeles Unified School Districts. On
September 2, the Los Angeles County Office of Education announced that all
schools in Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School Districts, Los Angeles Unified
School District, and Pasadena Unified School District would not in session
until later days. La Canada Unified School District schools resumed normal
schedule on September 2, and Glendale Unified School District schools were
opened on September 2 and resumed to a normal school schedule beginning the
morning of September 3.
However, it
seems unreasonable that why the schools in La Canada Unified School District
were in session when other school districts that seemed less affected were not.
The reason might be that the Station Fire grew in northward direction for the
most part, and perhaps most of the schools in the La Canada Unified School
District are in the south part of the school district. Moreover, whether the
schools would be open or close not only decided on their distances away from
the fire, but also the air quality of the area. Even though the La Canada
Unified School District is within the Station Fire affected area, the air
quality may not be at the significantly health concerned level. Therefore, the
district officials decided to remain the schools open started September 2.
As of September
3, 2009, approximately 10,000 residences were threatened, two Los Angeles
County firefighters were killed; over 4,735 personnel were working the fire. 64
residences and recreational cabins have been confirmed as destroyed long with 3
commercial and 27 others. The Station Fire was the result of arson after
investigators examined forensic evidence form scorched landscape off Angeles
Crest Highway. But fortunately, most of the school had no major loss, and all
of them returned to normal school schedule after few days of the Station Fire
had been taking full control.
Bibliography
Fire and Aviation Management Station Fire
Initial Attack Review: Report of the Review Panel. Rep. N.p.: United States Department of
Agriculture, 2009. Print.
Pringle,
Paul. “L.A. County Fire Doubles in Size; More Homes Destroyed; Mt. Wilson
Threatened.”LA Times. LA Times, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-county-fire-doubles-in-size-more-homes-list-mt-wilson-threatened.html>.
"Station Fire." InciWeb:
Incident Information System. N.p., 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/>.
"Station Fire." Station Fire.
N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
<http://interwork.sdsu.edu/fire/resources/StationFire.htm>.
“Station Fire Update.” LASD Blog. County of Los
Angeles, 3 Sep. 2009. Web. 14 June
2012.
<http://www.lasdblog.org/Pressrelease/PR_Folder/SFUpdateTH-01.pdf>.
