Final Project

The Station Fire

          On August 26, 2009, there was wildfire, which was called Station Fire, started happening in Los Angeles County. The location of the fire was in the central of Los Angeles County that basically contained State Highway 2 and Angeles National Forest. In the reference map, the station fire started somewhere near the intersection of Interstate Freeway 210 and State Highway 2. On August 30, 2009, the station fire spread out toward northeast and northwest, but the fire spread out more serious to northwest than the other side. After about twenty one hours, the fire went toward northeast seriously. Then, the fire developed to east and west. Large section of the State Highway 2 was involved in the fire causing closure.

          In the theme map, it shows all the parks in Los Angeles County. The Station Fire was totally located in the Angeles National Forest. The Angeles National Forest was a huge forest that covered over 650,000 acres and its elevations were quite high (1,200 to 10,064 feet). The forest was an important habitat for animals, vegetation, and it included some water bodies such as rivers and watersheds. Thus, this national forest acted as a significant role for human and even the whole ecosystem because the huge amount of plants that were in the forest could absorb carbon dioxide and provided oxygen efficiently; on the other hand, rivers and watersheds provided freshwater. Besides, the Angeles National Forest allowed people to have some recreational activities like camping, hiking, fishing, cycling, horse riding, and so on. Therefore, when wildfire threatened the forest, it was not only affected the forest, but also influenced the ecosystem.

          Wildfire is caused by nature; temperature, humidity, and wind are the most essential reasons to cause the fire. Wildfire always occurs in the areas that have high temperature with extremely low humidity; then, high wind supports the fire to grow bigger and spread out further. The climate of Southern California has good conditions for wildfire in summer – very high temperature, dry, and windy. The other necessities for burning fire are fuels and oxygen. Since forest is full of plants, it is a region that contains lots of wood and oxygen. Hence, forest is an ideal region for fire to burn. As a result, the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County carries high potential to catch fire.

          Base on the theme map, it shows that the Station Fire spread out within the forest, but not toward south which are urban city areas. One of the reasons for the Station Fire to have this tendency was because fire tends to burn vegetation, especially wood instead of burning buildings and roads as wood is much more flammable. In addition, slope is another reason to lead the fire. Fire goes toward uphill rather than downhill owing to the density of air. Density of air is about hot air rise and cold air sink, so when the Station Fire was burning, hot air rose turning the temperature in uphill area became hot and the plants caught fire there. The steeper the slope is, the easier the plants in upper area hit the hot air. Moreover, when hot air rises, it creates wind to blow the fire up. Consequently, fire tends to move up to the steep slope.

          The Station Fire is the largest wildfire in the county that covered about 161,000 acres and it caused critical damages. First, animals and plants lost their habitat or even died in the fire. Second, soil lost its nutrition. Third, air quality became worst and could not recover within a short period of time. Fourth, some buildings were destroyed. Fifth, government needed to spend a huge amount of money for restoration. However, wildfire is a natural phenomenon that it is hard to avoid unless we have an efficient method to keep the forest moist.

Bibliography

“About the Forest.” US Forest Service. Web. 8 December 2011. <http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/angeles/about-forest>

“Natural History of Fire and Flood Cycles.” California Coastal Commission. 18 August 1995. Web. 8 December 2011. <http://www.coastal.ca.gov/fire/ucsbfire.html>

“Station Fire Restoration.” National Forest Foundation. Web. 8 December 2011. <http://www.nationalforests.org/conserve/programs/conservation/angeles>

“Station Fire Update.” Incident Information System. 18 September 2009. Web. 8 December 2011. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/9549/>

“Wildfires.” National Geographic. Web. 8 December 2011. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/wildfires/>