Station Fire Thematic Map:
The Los Angeles Station Fire, which burned during this past August and September, caused unthinkable damage to numerous cities and regions in Los Angeles. Particularly, this fire affected Griffith Park. In August alone, 18 homes and 2 firefighters were lost to the fire. Unfortunately, in California, fire is not unheard of. Many fires have burned through wildlife during the dry seasons. The Los Angeles Station fire burned over 100,000 acres and is the largest fire in Los Angeles history, and the 10th largest fire in California history.
There is some disagreement about the human impact on this fire, in terms of prevention. The U.S. Forest Service has been criticized on their late reactions. Furthermore, the fire itself was caused by arson. The human impact on both the start of the fire, the spread, and the eventual extinguishing of the fire, was significant to say the least. Humans are constantly interested in taking control of our surroundings and influencing them, whether it be positive or negative. The National Forests in the Los Angeles county area are one way that humans section off what they deem as "wild" and preserve it. This area was what burned drastically in the fire, because proper measures were not taken in regard to preventing this land to build up with brush and highly flammable debris, fallen from seasons past.
My first map shows the full extent of the Station Fire, as of September 2, 2009, along with the major highways and cities in Los Angeles county. The GIS program easily shows the boundaries of the Station Fire as it spread, but I chose to document the final extent of the fire. I added to this by placing major highways and city points to the map. As seen, the fire raged in a wildlife region, part of Angeles National Forest, and also affected places like Griffith Park. Cities were also affected, like Altadena, La Crescenta, and other parts of Los Angeles County. Even where homes weren't burned, the burden of the imposing flames and ash in the air caused stress and even panic. Now these areas have even more to worry about, including landslide possibilities.
My second map is thematic, and shows the fire in relation to the major parks in Los Angeles. The fire is shown burning much of the Griffith Park region. One can see the amount of land devoted to these National Forests and parks. Humans section these areas off in an attempt to "preserve" them, although the attempts backfired because of a lack of fire prevention tactics.
The GIS capabilities to overlay different attributes allows for geographers and scientists to interpret the problems of something like this fire, and determine what action needs to be taken on preparing ourselves in the future against these kinds of disasters.
Sources:
1. http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9640/
2. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-station-fire14-2009nov14,0,7917310.story
3. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/31/local/me-fire31
4. "20 Largest California Wildland Fires (By Acreage Burned)" California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
5. Wikipedia: California's Largest Wildfires
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