Wildfires are a force of Mother Nature, but my no means are the effects always desirable. They create much debris, leading to potential of debris flows and landslides, as well as bringing possibilities of flooding, deforestation, and more. The spread of the fire creates many dangers as days may go on, especially for wildlife and the surrounding communities. The first map shows the spread of the fire just within the county. The highways help show exactly where the fire is and the proximity of the fire's spread to the nearby highways. The closer the fire gets to the highways, the worse it is as it will bring the debris closer to society and to the people on the highways, which would lead them to try to drive away from the debris flow as fast as they can.
In the second map, the borders of communities are drawn out. If the area of the community appears big, it has a small population of a community within a large area. So as we shift towards the northeast of the county, the areas of the communities get quite big, therefore those areas have a smaller population density in comparison to the smaller areas of communities.
The Station Fire that started on August 29, 2009 is said to be one of the largest recorded fires in California. The fire occurred in the Angeles National Forest, and with the great amount of vegetation, this allowed the fire to spread and create greater amounts of debris. This debris and the fire itself can affect surrounding communities. In the case of this fire, it was necessary to evacuate nearby communities, including those by Mt. Wilson and Tujunga Canyon. It ended up spreading far enough to claim 18 homes. As seen in the first and second map, the spread of the fire gets greater in the northern aspect. In the second map, it can be seen that the fire spreads more north, but also west into more communities that are mapped out in smaller area, meaning there is likely to be more urbanization, so more homes and roads. The loss of these homes, as well as the lives of two firefighters makes it more apparent that the fire moved closer to the areas of society.
The firemen were killed after driving off the road into terrain from the debris that was flowing. The debris leaves the roads "treacherous" and it would not be considered unexpected to see at least a small accident happening. The deaths of the firemen were still tragic, nonetheless, leaving this fire to have homicide cases after seen to be caused by arson.
Beyond just the direct debris as a reason to evacuate, landslides and flooding can result. And with the very steep terrain, the area remained dangerous. Since the fire's heat ends up sealing the soil, it is more difficult for water to penetrate it. Therefore if there is a mix of water and the debris, the soil won't soak any of the water up, giving great potential for flooding and landslides. After all that is said and done, it calls for rehabilitation of the area. The soil will not be the same, roads will need to be rebuilt, and the ecosystem will be affected. It becomes more likely to find more skunks, raccoons, and other animals in neighborhoods as they migrate away from their natural habitats. They will naturally return as the area cools and rehabilitates.
Sources
Garrison, Jessica. "Station Fire Claims 18 Homes and Two Firefighters." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/31/local/me-fire31>.
"InciWeb - Incident Information System." InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire News Release. N.p., 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 16 June 2012. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/9512/>.
"InciWeb - Incident Information System." InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire. N.p., 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 16 June 2012. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/>.
"L.A. NOW." L.A. County Fire Doubles in Size; More Homes Destroyed; Mt. Wilson Threatened [Updated]. LA Times Blogs, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 15 June 2012. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-county-fire-doubles-in-size-more-homes-list-mt-wilson-threatened.html>.
"Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS." Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 June 2012. <http://egis3.lacounty.gov/eGIS/>.
