The Station fire started in August 26 and was fully
contained by October 16. This horrible
event claimed the lives of two firefighters and 89 homes. The fire affected
160,577 acres, most of it forest land. Investigators claim the fire was caused
by arson. It is the 10th largest fire in modern California history.
The pattern of growth of the fire
was in all directions except southwestern. The fire torched the forest and
wildlife in the park but did not expand as much into the urbanized regions.
Also the fire seems to have slowed down (or it been contained) once it reached
a certain area. The initial growth was northwestern but headed east in the
third and fourth day.
I chose
the map theme to be the fire hydrant layer. When combating urban fires, fire
hydrants are a necessity, for it eases the firefighters water concerns and transportation.
Since the fire started in the Angeles National Forest, fire fighters had no
access to fire hydrants, which you can see in the map. The map shows that the
fire did not grow south once fire hydrants were accessible, as compared to its
growth in the other directions. My hypothesis derived from this map is that the
availability of fire hydrants contributed to the slowdown of the fire. You can
see that once it reached urbanized regions, the fire did not exceed that boundary
but continued to expand through wildlife.
Fighting fire in urbanized locations has its own set of characteristics. The benefits are easier mobilization, with road access, and easier water resources. The drawbacks are the imminent danger for the human population. City fires are more dangerous for people and homes, with other dangers that can occur from this, including pipe damage and gas leaks, which can lead to a faster growing fire.
Combating fires in wildlife has many drawbacks. The blaze easily feeds and grows from the abundant fuel in its surrounding. It is harder and more costly to navigate through forests and supply water and other containment strategies. Forest fires grow exponentially if not contained earlier on. The one benefit is the threat of human deaths is smaller.
Works Cited:
Greninger, MArk. Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS.
(2012): n. page. Print. <http://egis3.lacounty.gov/eGIS/>.
. "California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection." CA.gov. State of California, 16 Oct 2009. Web. 13 Jun
2012.
<http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=377
>.
. "2009 California Wildfire." Wikipedia: the
Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, 2 Jun 2012. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_California_wildfires >.
. "GIS Data for LA County." Los Angeles County
GIS Data Portal. N.p., 23 May 2012. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
<http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/index.php/category/theme/infrastructure/
>.
. "Mapping is not just for the experts." Mapshare.
N.p., 18 Feb 2009. Web. 13 Jun 2012. <http://gis.ats.ucla.edu/ >.
