The Los Angeles Station Fire was the largest and deadliest of these wildfires. It burned 160,577 acres (251 sq mi; 650 km2). It began in late August of 2009. As one can see in the center Digital Elevation map (DEM), the Station Fire was on middle ground, close to the highest points in L.A. county and the lowest elevation in the county.
On the California Station Fire in LA County map(upper right corner), the area of the California Station fire is shown and there are blue lines all around it. These blue lines represent all the major roads and highways in Los Angeles county. As one can tell, there are very few major roads that were affected by the fire. This is good because there won't be much infrastructure to fix in comparison to the lower west side of the county, if the fire had been there.
The middle ground area targeted by the Station fire was a herbaceous area. This is depicted as green area in the lower left hand corner map that shows the vegetation around Los Angeles. As one can also see on the map, the Station fire bordered the yellow-orange area which is the urban area of Los Angeles. By the size of this fire and it's proximity to the city one can see the potential threat it posed on civilians in Los Angeles county.
In the lower right-hand corner, the map shows the fuel rank with in L.A. county. The area covered by the Station fire was an area with a high fuel rank for fires. When we compare the LA County Vegetation Map with the LA County Fuel Rank Map one see that herbaceous areas tend to be the type of vegetation that most fuel wild fires. So it is important to make sure there is a watch over vast herbaceous areas that could potentially turn into on of the largest wildfires.
In the upper left map, we have a thematic map of California. It is divided by counties. It shows how common and severe it would be to have a fire in a particular county. As one can see both Los Angeles county and the California Station Fire are outlined in this map so that it could be compared to the greater California state. The Los Angeles county, relative to the rest of California, has a medium fire severity. It is neither uncommon nor super common to have fires in this part of California. So, something like the California Station Fire is to be expected but not too often.
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