Posted on 09/02/2009 1:22:11 PM PDT by kellynla
The monster Station Fire burning north of Los Angeles was human-caused, a U.S. Forest Service official said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, fire crews prepared for potential setbacks because of returning drier conditions, MSNBC.com reported.
Investigators don't know specifically how the Station Fire was started but have enough information to determine it was caused by a person, the Forest Service's deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said during a news conference. Investigators were determining whether the fire was accidental or arson and identified the point of origin as mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway.
Firefighters caught a weather break Tuesday when moister, cooler conditions moved into the area.
"Now we're going to have drier conditions, so fire activity is going to pick up quite a bit," Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Whaling said Wednesday. "It's still a very dynamic fire even though it looks calm right now."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire area Wednesday, dishing up breakfast for firefighters and giving them protein so "they get all pumped up for the next fight out there with those fires."
Since erupting Aug. 26, the Angeles National Forest blaze has burned through nearly 219 square miles, destroyed more than five dozen structures, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people from their homes.
Officials also expressed concern about the fire's threat to the Mount Wilson observatory and communications complex, the Los Angeles Times said.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Whatever the case, the alternative which we have just experienced is definitely not the answer.
Probably more than you. I driven past the point of origin of this fire many times. My favorite hike in the world is up Colby Canyon to Josephine Saddle, then along the ridge and the class 3 scramble to the top of Strawberry Peak. I've hiked from JPL up around Switzer Falls to the highway. I've been all through there. At the upper altitudes, on north facing slopes. you got pinyon pines and junipers. In the bottoms of the deep canyons that have running streams most of the year, you've got some scattered hardwoods. But most of it, especially the areas the burned in this fire, mostly look about like this:
The technical name is chaparral, but I think it can safely be characterized as scrub. You can't walk over it. You can't walk under it. You can't walk through it.
Yes. The private outifts that use goats to clear land for government agencies, as is done on a small scale around San Diego and a more extensive scale around Laguna, charge $750 an acre. In this fire, 145,000 acres have burned. To have cleared that land using goats would have cost north of 100 million dollars. What has been spent to fight the fire is about a quarter of that.
To have the entire 650,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest cleared by goats would cost half a billion dollars. And then there's the Cleveland National Forest, the Los Padres National Forest and the San Bernardino National forest, just within a hundred miles, all with pretty similar vegetation. It takes 70 goats four days to go through one acre. That's 180 million goat days to cover the Angeles National Forest.
How many goats do you envision the federal government contracting with?
Thanks.
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