Assignment 8

          The Los Angeles Station Fire of 2009 was significant because it was one of the biggest fires in California in 2009.  It originated in the Angeles National Forest and "threatened the nearby residential communities of La Canada Flintridge, Glendale, Acton, La Crescenta, Littlerock and Altadena, Sunland and Tujunga forcing mandatory evacuations of inhabitants from their dwelling." (Wikipedia)  My station firemap outlines the residential neighborhoods that the fire affected as well as the severety and impact the fire had on the interstate transportation system.
          Given the high combustion potential of the Angeles National Forest, and the close proximity of the suburban communities of the Los Angeles county to the south, the question of arson comes up because this seems like the perfect place to initiate a fire.  On September 3, officials had confirmed that an act of arson had started the fire, "after discovering certain accelerants at the fire's point of origin" (Slate), which is labeled as the green-blue figure on the map.  It would seem that the arsonist attempted to start it as close to the residential areas (gray) as possible.
          The map shows the major streets/freeways throughout the Los Angeles county, and from speculation it doesn't seem like the station fire was relatively catastrophic to the transportation sector as it could have been.  There are freeway systems to the east/west of the station fire which still connect the Hollywood/the Valley to central Los Angeles.  They probably only slightlier congested.
          In the aftermath of the fire, a spatial analysis calculated that the Station Fire had destroyed 168,000 acres of forest land.  A widespread ecosystem restoration movement needs to take place in order to accelerate the regeneration process to get the forest back to a sustainable condition.  "Two organizations - Tree People and the US Forest Service - have collaborated to offer training classes for restoration volunteers." (Real-estate-blog)
          Even though only minimal structural damage was caused by the Station Fire, surrounding residents had to deal with the aftermath of "thick smoke and ash hanging in the air, causing air quality to drop to unhealthful levels in many parts." (Boston) This fire also contributed to further increase the amount of greenhouse gasses in the global atmosphere because of the decrease of carbon fixing evergreen trees which in turn leads to an increase in global warming.
        
"2009 California Wildfires." Wikipedia.com, n.p., 31 Oct. 2011, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"How Did the Station Fire Start?" slate.com, n.p., 3 Sep. 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Report: Number of Firefighters Reduced Before Station Fire" ktla.com, KTLA News., 2 Oct. 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Wildfires in Southern California" boston.com, Big Picture., 2 Sep 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Station Fire La Canada Flintridge - Reforestation Volunteers Needed " real-estate-blog.com, The Real Estate Blog, 28 February 2010, Web. 09 Dec 2011