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 10^th 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/ >.