Final Lab: Station Fire 2009

In August and September of 2009 the largest fire in L.A. County history occurred, the Station Fire. As usual, firefighters did their best to put out the fire, and in the process, two firefighters were killed. (Incident Information System). Furthermore, not only were two brave men killed, but there was a possibility that nearby residents suffered health effects due to smoke produced by such a large fire. In the following report, I attempt to show that although the perimeter of the fire did not reach populated areas of Los Angeles County, the smoke and residue from the Station Fire were close enough to populated areas to cause health complications.

In Figure 1, the map shows the perimeter of the Fire station in relation to topography of Los Angeles County. However, further mapping was required in order to see which, or if, populated areas of L.A. County were within that perimeter. As Figure 1.2 shows, there were no populated areas that were directly affected by the fire. But it is clear that there are a couple of populated areas south of the fires that were in danger of the fire. Even though this map shows that the fire did not reach populated areas, reports do show that homes were destroyed. In fact, 21 homes were destroyed and 1,200 were at risk (NASA).

Figure 2 was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and from it one can see were Los Angeles is located in relation to the smoke produced by the Station fire (2009). This is an important satellite image to look at because it gives us an idea of the general pattern that the smoke traveled.

According to a report from the Division of Environmental Health in Washington, smoke from fires is toxic to the lungs because it is made up of toxic gases, and can cause breathing problems (Washington State). This is especially dangerous to those who already have breathing problems such as asthma. Moreover, this is significant because 20% of people who don’t even know that they have respiratory problems have “hyper-reactive airways.” This means that they are more likely to have complications because of the bad air quality produces by the smoke from the fire (Global Times).

In conclusion, it is clear that the Station Fire was dangerous not only because it was large and spread over a vast part of Southern California, but because it had adverse side effects as well. The health of people in the nearby populated areas was undoubtedly affected.

Figure 1:

Figure 1.2:

Figure 2

MODIS satellite image showing dense smoke from Station fire in Los Angeles County (Aug. 31, 2009)


Works Cited

Incident Information System. Incident Overview. 10 November 2009. http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.“Smoke from Station Fire Blankets Southern California: 31 Aug. 2009. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2298

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “NOAA Satellites Support Battle against California Wildfires” 31 Aug. 2009 http://www.noaa.gov/features/03_protecting/calif_wildfires.html

Washington State Department of Health: Division of Environmental Health. “Your Health and Smoke from Fires” July 2006. http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/smokefactsheet.pdf

Wildfire Causes Serious Pollution around Los Angles. Global Times. 5 Sept. 2009. http://world.globaltimes.cn/americas/2011-04/464551.html