Lab 8

      According to the report, the station fire was a devastating wildfire that started on August 26th, 2009 in Angeles National Forest (“Station Fire”). Until August 30th, the station fire had claimed 18 homes and two firefighters (Garrison, Zavis, and Mozingo). The fire was fully under control at 7:00p.m on Friday, October 16, 2009. Firefighters were able to contain the fire in the San Gabriel wilderness area because of the moderate rainfall earlier that week (“Station Fire”). The giant fire lasted for about 50 days and caused huge loss. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said that “mistakes were made but there is a valuable opportunity to learn and improve” (Quoted in Blood).

      The first map is a reference map of the station fire and the second map is a thematic map. This reference map shows the vegetation, the station fire perimeters, major highways, water features, and elevation of the LA County. The vegetation information comes from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The water feature and major highway data come from UCLA Mapshare. The thematic map is about the relationship between station fire and populated areas in LA County. The station fire perimeters information in both maps comes from LA County Enterprise website and the populated areas data come from UCLA Mapshare.

      In the reference map, we can see that although most major highways were not involved in the station fire, the fire involved the Angeles Crest Highway and was quite close to the Interstate 210 Highway. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Angeles Crest Highway was a popular road for campers and motorcyclists. However, the Los Angeles Highway was closed because of the station fire and reopened three months later (Roe). As for the Interstate 210 Highway, because people were evacuated timely, the fire did not cause too much loss. We can also see that the water features were not involved in the reference map.

      As can be seen in the thematic map, the purple areas are the most populated and the pink areas are the least populated. Therefore, we can conclude that most populated areas are located south of the station fire perimeters. People who were close to the station fire areas were evacuated. Yet the station fire did not influence too many people because the most populated areas were not involved in the station fire. In addition, the LA elevation legend shows that the darker an area is, the higher the elevation is. Therefore, most populated areas are located at lower elevations. The Northern California Fire Behavior Assessment indicates that “in areas with steep elevation gradients, shifting diurnal winds cause fires to continually change directions” (ONC Support). As a result, the populated areas in LA County were relatively safe. However, because the Angeles National Forest in which station fire happened was located at higher elevation, the fire was hard to control.

      Overall, the two maps reflect demographic and topographic information of the station fire that happened in 2009. From these two maps, we can see the potential of GIS. Using GIS, people can easily access data, integrate different data, and do spatial analysis. For example, using GIS, people can find out the topographic and demographic condition of the station fire and therefore predict the difficulty in fighting against the fire and the loss that the fire would cause.

 

Works Cited

Blood, Michael R. “2009 Los Angeles Station Fire Report Reveals Foggy Policies In The Forest Service.” Huffpost Los Angeles. n.p., 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.

Garrison, Jessica, Alexandra Zavis, and Joe Mozingo. “Station fire claims 18 homes and two firefighters.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.

ONC Support. “Northern California Fire Behavior Assessment.” Battle Creek Watershed Conservancy. n.p., 7 July 2008. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.

Roe, Lorraine. “Angeles Crest Highway Reopens: A Bittersweet Trip Through The Barren San Gabriel Mountains.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 7 Dec. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.

“Station Fire.” InciWeb. Incident Information System, 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.