Tag: Station Fire

The Station fire, at 148,258 154,655 acres and 42% containment, is still very active on the southeast side and continues to grow closer to Highway 39. One of the objectives of the incident management team suppressing the fire is to keep it west of 39. Incident Commander Mike Dietrich said on September 2 about that highway:

Firefighters are “out in front, waiting for an opportunity to act in there.

So he a drew line in the sand, er, the highway, hoping to stop it, if not before it gets to Highway 39, WHEN it gets there. We wish good luck to Mr. Dietrich and the rest of the firefighters, and hope they can meet their objective.

Firefighters are exposed to carbon monoxide on fires and take measures to mitigate it, such as wearing breathing apparatus when practical. Of course, wildland firefighters do not have that luxury. The national and Los Angeles area press are hammering the Station fire incident command post with dozens of reporters, camera operators, and media vans with generators. They generally keep the engines on the vans and the generators running continuously.

On Thursday, concerned about the carbon monoxide levels in the press area and the minimal air movement, the incident safety personnel contacted the LA County Health Department to monitor the air quality. At mid-afternoon high levels of carbon monoxide were detected around the media press conference area, but returned to a safe level after the vans and generators were turned off for a couple of hours.

Fighting a wildland fire in Los Angeles is different than it is in Wisdom, Montana or Upton, Wyoming.

Incident Commander Mike Dietrich gave a briefing at 7:12 a.m. this morning about the Station fire near Los Angeles. Here are some of the key points.

• The fire has burned 144,743 acres and the containment has increased from 28% to 38%.
• Last night a firefighter who had fallen off a 20-foot cliff and had a possible broken femur had to be hoisted by a helicopter out of the fire area.
• Mt. Wilson is still looking good and they expect positive results there. A low intensity fire is burning around the structures and is being managed by firefighters.
• The two highest priorities are the southeast side above Arcadia and Sierra Madre and the west side near Pacoima.
• Today they expect the fire to be very active on the west side and also on the east side in the San Gabriel Wilderness.
• To date, helicopters have dropped 1,700,000 gallons of water and 18,000 gallons of fire retardant.
• Air tankers have dropped 670,000 gallons of retardant.
• Aircraft assigned to the fire today will include 20 helicopters and 8 air tankers, not including the Very Large Air Tankers such as the DC-10, 747, and the Martin Mars.

Photo from the official Station fire Facebook page

In a press conference that just concluded at about 5:20 p.m., Incident Commander Mike Dietrich, his staff, and the Forest Supervisor provided the following updated information about the Station fire near Los Angeles:

• Size and containment: The official size is still 140,150 acres, but this figure will be updated later this evening. The containment has increased from 22% to 28%.
• Number of firefighters: 4,700 firefighters are assigned.
• South side: they made “excellent progress” today securing the perimeter in the foothills and urban interface area.
• West side: “We are in a fire-fight now”, Incident Commander Dietrich said about this area. They have a lot of work left to do there, and the rugged terrain means that only hand crews can get in there to work.
• North side: again they made “excellent progress”.
• Mt. Wilson: they made “great progress” around the communications and observatory facilities. No structures have been lost, and the fire in the area is “low intensity”.
• Southeast side: this is the part of the fire that they are the most concerned about, and is the number one priority on the fire. They will attempt to keep the fire above the communities of  Acadia, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre and to work the fire over toward the west fork of the San Gabriel river.
• East side: this area continues to grow. The Incident Commander said firefighters are “out in front, waiting for an opportunity to act in there”, referring to Highways 2 and 39.
• Air Attack: Heavy smoke prevented fixed wing aircraft from working the fire at all, but helicopters were able to be very effective today.
• Structures: 64 residences and 49 outbuildings have burned.
• Evacuations: From a maximum of 4,300 homes that were under evacuation orders, only 50 remain, and those are in the Acton area.
• Cost to date: $27 million
• Cause and Origin of the fire: Officially, said the Forest Supervisor of the Angeles National Forest, they have “no idea” what the cause of the fire was. But news reports and video footage showed investigators zeroing in on a possible point of origin.

The Station fire, while slowed by higher humidity, still increased by about 19,000 acres on Tuesday. Now mapped at 140,150 acres, most of the additional growth occurred on the east side of the fire in the Angeles National Forest.

Firefighters have been conducting burnouts, especially on the urban south side, fighting fire with fire to remove the fuel between the homes and the fire edge. This is primarily being done on the extremely steep slopes where it is difficult for crews to work safely and has helped to bring containment up to 22%.

Firefighters began to focus on the communications infrastructure on Mt. Wilson on Tuesday, as crews began burning to remove fuel around some of the structures. They are also cutting brush and limbing trees, and will be using foam and gel to treat the buildings if the main fire makes an intense run up the hill towards the facility.

As we reported on Tuesday, the Martin Mars, a 60-year old “flying boat”, made a drop on Mt. Wilson yesterday. It flew from its base on Lake Elsinore and may have dropped up to 7,200 gallons on the mountain.

The weather on Wednesday will be similar to that seen on Tuesday, but the temperature in the valley near the fire will be about 5 degrees higher at 99, and the humidity will be about the same,in the mid-20s in the afternoon. A southwest wind blowing at six to nine mph will be little stronger than yesterday, but will aid the burnouts planned near the houses on the south side. The fire may continue to spread on the east, pushed by the southwest wind, as it has for the last several days.