2009 Station Fire

This week has been a doozy in the foothills North of Los Angeles, where I live. A wildfire dubbed the "Station Fire" has been burning, for over a week, in the Angeles National Forest. The fire started as a relatively small event, isolated in the foothills above La Cañada Flintridge, off the Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2) on August 26th. However, the fire, fueled by over 60 years of unfettered growth on the mountain, expanded uncontrollably on August 29/30th -- septupling in size. The unchecked fire growth forced evacuations in my La Crescenta neighborhood and La Cañada Flintridge. Then, later in the week, the communities of Acton, Altadena, Sunland, and Tujunga also faced mandatory evacuations, and the fire raced up Mount Wilson, threatening the observatory and most of the telecommunications infrastructure in the Los Angeles basin).

Fortunately, my home was just South of the mandatory evacuation area. Still, a firefighter told me that because there is a 180+ foot tall pine tree in my front yard, I should be prepared to leave immediately because if the tree caught fire, our whole cul-de-sac would go up! Not comforting news, but important to know all the same...

I am very appreciative of all of the firefighters who defended our homes, as well as the Cal Fire crews who worked on the fire proper. They did a great job protecting our Foothill communities, and everyone living here is grateful.

During this very long week, I took a bunch of photos from around my house; below is my Flickr slide show documenting the fire and all of the action I could see (click on a picture to view the slide show):
Also, be sure to check out other Flickr images of the fire.

As a postscript, the fire burned for over 6 weeks (finally being declared "out" on October 16th). It resulted in some spectacular pyrocumulus clouds, destroyed almost 100 homes, and was responsible for the death of 2 firefighters. On September 3rd, authorities confirmed what most of my neighbors and I had already surmised; the fire was set deliberately, and an arson investigation had been initiated...