Station Fire

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There is much to learn from the California Station Fire that occurred in 2009, especially with respect to political district lines. Figures 2 through 7 show the Congressional, Senate, and California State Assembly districts that were directly affected by the Station Fire. I am concerned  about the policy and funding behind fire stations.

                The source of funding varies for different fire stations, but they include sources such as municipal, county, state, and national governments².I am interested in the correlation between who is paying for the fire stations and the range of the various districts, focusing mainly on the Congressional Districts. Figure 3 shows that the Station Fire touched four different Congressional Districts, while Figure 2 shows the extent of each of these districts. It is interesting to note that District 25 covers much more area than any of the other districts. The inhabitants must be very spread out, but this means that people who live in Northern/Central California will be responsible for paying for relief for a fire that was hundreds of miles away from them.

                The reactions of various politicians to the Station Fire can be correlated to which district they belong to. In a Los Angeles Times article, both Senators and five Representatives signed a bill asking “Congress’ investigative arm to launch a sweeping probe” about the response time to the Station Fire⁴. Upon further research, I found that four of the Representatives correspond to the four districts directly affected by the fire, while the fifth Representative was District 32- located directly below District 26⁶. These Representatives would want to make sure that the firefighters in their districts were doing the best they possibly could so that in the future, such deadly fires could be avoided. The Senators would be concerned with the Station Fire because they are responsible for all of the voters in California, which includes the people affected by the fire.

One of the reasons that the politicians would support such a bill is that the largest fire in Los Angeles County history occurred while they were in office⁵. For the safety of their constituents, and to ensure they will not blame their government for the fire, these politicians asked for an in depth investigation.

The cost of fire departments is on the rise. The expenses for paying fire fighters and buying supplies are going up, while revenues are going down³. For this reason, it is important that we check that fire departments are effective. The bill that these Californian politicians signed is an important step in that process. Hopefully, in the future politicians whose districts were not directly affected by the Station Fire will support bills such as this one, since wild fires are a threat across the state.

Works Cited

1. CAL FIRE Home. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://www.fire.ca.gov/>.
2. "Fire Department." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Department>.
3. Hill, John R. "Fire Department Funding - The 4 Upcoming Critical Financial Issues That Will Rock Your World." EzineArticles. 8 July 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Fire-Department-Funding---The-4-Upcoming-Critical-Financial-Issues-That-Will-Rock-Your-World&id=1276194>.
4. Pringle, Paul. "Lawmakers Seek Broad Probe into Forest Service Response to Station Fire - Los Angeles Times." Los Angeles Times. 06 Aug. 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/06/local/la-me-station-fire-20100806>.
5. Pringle, Paul. "Station Fire: Lead CDF Air Attack Officer Contradicts Forest Service Report." CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS. 06 July 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://calfire.blogspot.com/2010/07/station-fire-lead-cdf-air-attack.html>.
6. "Representatives By State." United State House of Representatives. U.S. House of Representatives. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. <www.house.gov>.