For my report I am observing the affects that the Fires had on the community in the area. More specifically the schools and the health risks that is presented from the smoke from the fires.
Wild Fires are one of the many major disasters that occur on earth. Wild fires even though may be dangerous and cause massive amounts of damage, in some cases it is just balancing out the ecosystems. Fires that rip through dried out vegetation helps replenish and sometimes help seeds grow (Cunningham 138-140). After these fires the soil left by the fires is now fertile where new plants can grow and thrive.
On average about 5 million acres get burned by fires each year by fires causing massive amounts of damage and expenses. These fires can spread at the rate of 14.29 mile per hour (HowStuffWorks). Some of these fires may occur naturally by the heat from the sun or a lightning strike, but many times these fires are created by man. The common fires that are created by humans are due to: Arsons, Campfires, Discarding lit cigarettes, improperly burning debris, playing with matches or fireworks or prescribed fires (HowStuffWorks). Everything has a temperature were it will burst into a flame. This is also known as a flash point. For example woods flash point is about 572 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature it releases hydrocarbon gases that mix with oxygen in the air, combust and creates fire. There are three things that fires need to start a fire, fuel, oxygen and heat, without one of these the flame will not last (HowStuffWorks).
In 2009, bright and sunny Southern California Los Angeles over 100,000 acres had been burned in a major fire (CNN). The Station fire, was burning through the Angeles National Forest just north of Los Angeles, this fire forced thousands to evacuate from their homes and endangered thousands of people homes, and major communication installation on Mount Wilson. At the time the fire started the humidity was rather low and there was high temperatures, conditions which are perfect to help keep up a fire. Also to add to the perfect weather conditions for the fire Southern California had been facing a drought for that current year. The Fire original started on Wednesday August 26, 2009 around 3:30pm (Inciweb). This fire was one of the latest fire recorded in the history of the Angeles National Forest and the 10th largest fire in California since 1933 (Inciweb). The Station Fire was caused by Arson.
The Fire not only burned thousands of acres of forests but caused many roads to close and also forced schools to be closed which included the; Acton-Agua Dulce Unified District; Glendale Unified; La Canada Unified School Districts. Also schools in the Pasadena Unified School District had all their summer practices to be canceled because of all the bad air quality. So sports such as Cross-Country, Football, Tennis; practices had to be canceled. The schools who were already in school had to have all their lunch sessions inside and had to avoid opening the windows so no unhealthy would be located in the class rooms (Saugus Union School District).
These schools that canceled summer practices was due to the unhealthy quality of the air that was created by the smoke of the fire. The determination of how healthy the air quality is determined by the Air Quality Management District also known as the AQMD. The AQMD everyday has a monitor that tells how clean the air is and determines wether it is safe or not to have physical activity outdoors. Doing physical activates in these bad air quality areas are not recommended because if inhaling of too much it may lead to Heart Disease. The carbon monoxide displaces the oxygen in your red blood cells thus meaning that less oxygen can reach into your body. This mostly affects the heart and lungs (Current Incidents). Of course it has to be a large amount of carbon monoxide to do huge affects to a person but it is still better to be safe than sorry. Also with a lot of smoke and carbon monoxide there may be a lead of increase chance of Chronic Respiratory Dieses. Meters which the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) created which measure the PSI in the air. A PSI ration of up to 100 is healthy, from 100-200 it is unhealthy, 200-300 very unhealthy, and can affect elderly and people with weak lungs and a measurement above 300 is considered Hazardous (Current Incidents).
Creating these maps allowed me to look deeper on what ArchGis could do. I learned that ArchGis makes what seem ridiculous hard tasks into manageable work. Also creating these maps I also learned how extensive the fire was and how good of a job that fire fighters did on contain the fire. Even though it looks like the fire did great amounts of damage, without the expertise and courage of the fire fighters, the fire could have been much worse. In fact that if the fire went out of control and the wind pushing the fire east instead of north the fire might have actually had the chance to reach my home.
Cited
"'Angry Fire' Roars across 100,000 California Acres - Page 2 - CNN." Featured Articles from CNN. 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 07 June 2011. <http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-31/us/california.wildfires_1_mike-dietrich-firefighters-safety-incident-commander/2?_s=PM:US>.
Cunningham, William P. Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Applications. Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill, 2010. Print.
Current Incidents. Web. 07 June 2011. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/>.
"Bad Air Day?" Health And Energy Company. Web. 07 June 2011. <http://healthandenergy.com/bad_air_day.htm>.
"HowStuffWorks "How Wildfires Work"" HowStuffWorks "Science" Web. 07 June 2011. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/wildfire.htm>.
"InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire." InciWeb the Incident Information System:
"Station Fire Update for Tuesday, September 1, 2009." Saugus Union School District. Web. 07 June 2011. <http://www.saugususd.org/station-fire-update-tuesday-september-1-2009>.
"Lab #3: Energy: Ozone Detection Strips." Chemistry Land Intro. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107Lab/Exp03_DetectOzone/OzoneLab/OzoneLab.htm>.
