The Station Fire of 2009 is being called "the largest L.A. Country's modern history" (L.A. Times Now). The total area of the burn totaled "160,577 acres" (Station Fire News Release). While the burn area was quite large, it was managed well. The cause of the fire was arson and it was set in an area where many lives were not in terrible jeopardy. The total number of residences totaled 89, and many of them were trailers. The main thing to know is that trailers burn quickly, thus once one trailer started to burn, an entire compound went down very quickly.
The good news about this particular fire, is what is bad about this fire; the location. By looking at the reference map that is pictured first, it is easy to see that there are major arteries that go close to the fire perimeter. This is good when getting personnel to the fire area. The bad new is how close it was to major populations. Many people live in Los Angeles, and in September of 2009 the population was "10,393,185" (Rosenberg). This is a considerable amount of people, especially when thinking about how many lives could have been in danger.
The second map above is my thematic map for this topic. What is depicted is the major roads, the major airports, and the hospitals of L.A county. The importance of all of these is obvious. We need roads to get people out of the way of danger and we need airports to transport workers and people that don't live in the area. The main thing that I included in the map was the hospitals, and these are very important for the obvious reasons.
The roads that were available during the Station Fire were of course very useful. We needed them to transport workers and machinery to the closest points of the fire. But sometimes, accidents due occur to the roads that make them unusable. "More than 40 miles of the Angeles Crest Highway from La Canada Flintridge to Islip Saddle have been closed indefinitely because of the Station Fire, which has burned off road stripping and destroyed guard rails and signage along the scenic route, Caltrans officials said" (L.A. Now). By looking at either of the two maps above, the road that disappears in the fire perimeter is the road that was affected by the fire.
The effects of the fire is still hurting the area today. "Last April, U.S. Forest Service crews planted nearly a million pine and fir trees to try to reclaim land scorched clean by the devastating Station fire. Most of them shriveled up and died within months, as skeptics had predicted" (Sahagun). So still today, the fire is just as important as it was when it occurred. Not only are the trees the natural environment of this area, they help preserve the hill from landslides during the rainy seasons.
Works Cited:
"L.A. NOW." Angeles Crest Highway Closed Indefinitely Because of Fire. L. A. Times, 4 Sept. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
"L.A. Times NOW." Station Fire Is Largest in L.A. County's Modern History. L. A. Times, 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
Rosenberg, Matt. "LA Population." About.com Geography. About.com, 20 Aug. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
Sahagun, Louis. "Reforestation Not Taking Hold in Land Burned by Station Fire." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 07 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
"Station Fire News Release." Incident Information System. InciWeb, 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
