Mapping the Station Fire in ArcGIS

The Station Fire in Los Angeles, California was the tenth largest wildfire in California’s history and was the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County’s history. It lasted over a month and a half and burned 160,577 acres. Because it took such a long period of time for California firefighters to gain control of the fire, when the fire was finally contained and completely extinguished six weeks after it first began the California fire department’s methods for fighting wildfires were called into question. The California fire department determined the cause of the fire was arson. The arsonist responsible for starting the fire has never been apprehended.

The Station Fire began on August 26th, 2009 around 3:30 pm. It was first ignited near a USFS ranger station on the Angeles Crest Highway (Highway 2) in the Angeles National Forest. Despite the beginning wildfire’s close proximity to a ranger station as well as a fire station, the fire quickly became uncontrollable as the flames grew at an alarming rate. The Station Fire even acquired its name due to its close proximity to the ranger station and fire station.

During the Station Fire’s course, it was responsible for the deaths of 2 firefighters, injured 22 people, destroyed 89 residences, damaged 13 residences, destroyed 26 commercial properties, and damaged 22 commercial properties. The Station Fire caused several highways to close down due to its close proximity to the roads, such as Highway 2 and Highway 39. The resources involved in extinguishing the flames were 647 emergency response workers, 5 helicopters, and 27 fire engines. The wildfire was fully contained on October 16th, 2009 around 7:00 pm following moderate rainfall in the San Gabriel Mountains.

In the figure above, the first map depicted is a map showing the Station Fire at its full extent and its proximity to the major highways running through Los Angeles County. As shown in the map, the fire was extremely close to Highway 210 and Highway 14. The fire’s close proximity to Highway 210 resulted in several parts of the highway being closed off.

The second map depicted in the figure above displays the Station Fire in relation to Los Angeles County’s various bodies of water and groundwater basins. The bodies of water are classified as various lakes and ponds located in Los Angeles County. The groundwater basins represent the groundwater basins and sub-basins as defined by the California Department of Water Resources. Groundwater basins are designated on the basis of geological and hydrological conditions, these usually being the occurrence of alluvial or unconsolidated deposits (http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/?cat=12). The basins provide water for the public’s use in Los Angeles County. The “LA County Station Fire and Nearby Water Sources” map was included in the figure above, as I was curious to see how close Los Angeles County’s public water sources were in relation to the fire. Being that it took such a long period of time for the Los Angeles fire department to gain control of the Station Fire, I’m puzzled to find that the fire was in very close proximity to Los Angeles County’s ground water basins. Upon further research, I found that the reason the ground water basins close proximity to the fire’s location was not a very helpful factor in extinguishing the flames was because the basins weren’t especially full due to a dry season with little rainfall. The Station Fire was finally fully contained due to heavy rainfall in October.


References:
1. http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/?cat=12
2. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7484272&rss=rss-kabc-article-7484272
3. http://interwork.sdsu.edu/fire/resources/StationFire.htm
4. http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/
5. http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9640/
6. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-fire-map-html,0,7464337.htmlstory