I recently got back from the Station Fire Camp. When this huge Angeles NF fire started, I was working in the call center for the Cottonwood Fire on the San Bernardino NF, but after I was done there (and had a couple of days off) I made myself available. When I got ordered on the 15th the Station Fire was 87% contained and had been transferred to a Type 2 team. So I expected the fire to be wrapping up and that I’d be around for just a few days. And, since fire camp was within an hour of home, I was going to commute. But I didn’t expect traffic on the 210 to be as bad as it was and it took me twice as long to drive, and after working 13-16 hour shifts I didn’t feel like spending so much time on the road when I could be sleeping. So at fire camp I stayed.
I had heard all sorts of things about fire camps, mostly negative. So I was pleasantly surprised when the food was quite good, the showers were clean, and the atmosphere was, well, fun. Fire camp was originally at Hansen Dam but had moved to Santa Fe Dam. This is a recreation area with fishing, swimming, boating, picnicking, and camping. So it is a good setting for camp with wide grassy areas and good views of the mountains.
The caterer was “For Stars” and, as it sounds, caters for Hollywood movie sets. So the food is good, very good… especially the salads! I learned right away, however, that someone like me who wasn’t working nearly as hard as the firefighters needed to ask for the “Happy Meal”, which was about 1/3 of what they normally served. Otherwise I’d waste a ton of food. I also learned that you had to blurt this out within the first second of arriving at the window or they’d hand you a huge overflowing plate of food… and you’d get glared at by the next person in line if you had to hand it back and get something else.
The showers were big semi-trucks retrofitted with individual rooms with showers and sinks and plenty of room to change. I learned that evening was the worst time to shower as the lines were long. Mornings about 6:00 am were the best. And you didn’t need to bring soap or shampoo or a towel... In fact, if you forgot anything, you probably could get it at camp. I forgot hand lotion and couldn’t find my Advil one night when I had a shoulder ache and I got them both from medical supply.
Unfortunately the camp laundry moved out too soon and I had to find a local laundromat to wash my clothes when I found myself running low on clean socks.
So I spent much of my time in camp going to briefings, doing daily news releases, answering phones, and doing media interviews. But I also got out and about to update some information boards we had posted in nearby communities. I had never explored the foothill communities of Monrovia and Sierra Madre but found their downtown areas to be very quaint and beautiful... and full of people who were very interested in the fire.
I also drove with another PIO over the mountains on Highway 2 to see the aftermath of the fire. I was excited to see some areas, usually north facing slopes and cooler drainages, that still had live vegetation. We even saw live birds and squirrels. After reading melodramatic articles from the newspapers that claimed there were corpses of dead animals littering the ground, we made special effort to look for them. Well, the only dead animal we saw was a squirrel that had been hit by a car. Talk about unfair - imagine surviving a 160,000+ acre wildfire, only to get hit by a car a few days later :(
The south facing slopes as you’re driving up Highway 2 look pretty devastated, as does most of upper Big Tujunga Canyon. The Vetter Mountain Lookout Tower, a much loved site that was staffed by volunteers, is gone. Nothing but the bed frame and melted glass remain. But at the turn-off for the lookout several acres of Ponderosa Pine survived. And a little further up the highway, the Chilao recreation area looks good. The Chilao Visitor Center is still there, and the architect who designed the building gave us a call today and I was able to deliver him the good news and send him a photo of it still standing. Newcomb’s Ranch Restaurant is still there, it’s a popular a hangout for bikers. And I’ve heard that several wildlife biologists are happy parts of San Gabriel Wilderness burned. The reason being that the thick brush there had choked out Bighorn Sheep, and after a fire new grass and vegetation invites them back in.
The southern part of the forest remains closed to the public. Part of the reason why being they’re doing a huge amount of work on the roads. Virtually every guard rail post and sign is gone or badly damaged. There are numerous rock slides occurring along the steep denuded slopes. And rehab crews are working to stabilize the land before the rainy season comes.
So, after 11 days I was released from the fire and headed home. The fire is at 98% containment. The last 2% are in incredibly steep and rugged country near Twin Peaks in the San Gabriel Wilderness that's inaccessible to ground crews. So the fire probably won't be declared fully contained until it rains.
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