The largest fire in Los Angeles County history continues to burn, covering 150,000 acres, but the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory survives due to firefighters' heroic efforts.

::::::::

This view toward the northeast shows the westernmost edge of the Station Fire in Sunland, CA, at about 3:30 pm on Sept. 2.

According to the updated map at click here the fire is about 20 miles long (east to west) and 15 miles wide (north to south.)

The area shown in this photo is approximately 20 miles from the eastern edge of the fire area.

This portion of the Angeles National Forest hasn't burned since 1924, providing plenty of fuel for this fire.

By Tuesday the fire had covered nearly 200 square miles.

Now at 150,000 acres, it is the largest fire in Los Angeles county history.

Two firefighters have lost their lives.

While the fire is still uncontained in the east, most of the evacuees in other areas have been allowed to return.

A sudden and unexpected change in weather conditions early Tuesday morning aided firefighters in containment, which hit 28% by Wednesday.

Quotes from Fox 11 KTTV (Tuesday morning Sept 1):

“Temperature is down, humidity is up, that's making a big difference”

(Last night we got some) “moisture that wasn't expected,” (we had a good) “humidity recovery last night with showers here and there!”

“Yesterday in the weather department the forecast expected some little influx of humidity"we had no idea at this time yesterday that we were going to get this much moisture” ".”a tremendous amount”" “it's essentially ‘partly to mostly cloudy!”

“we EVEN HAD sprinkles and very brief light showers "”

“that moisture is not going to put the fire out but it cools the atmosphere and moistens it up "”

“I checked the remote weather station in the fire zone in Little Tujunga Canyon at 9 am yesterday, and the temperature was close to 90 degrees, and the humidity had dropped to single digits. This morning, by comparison, the temperature was in the upper 70's, and humidity value was in the mid- to high 30's.

“This is a BIG TIME recovery that has helped firefighters tremendously”


About 4,700 firefighters are battling the blaze. The sound of helicopters and other aircraft can be heard throughout the day.



Atop Mt. Wilson, the historic 105-year-old Mt. Wilson observatory, with its 100-inch Hooker telescope, and the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of communications towers, were directly in the path of the advancing flames. According to wikipedia, this is the telescope that Edwin Hubble used to measure galaxy redshifts and discover the general expansion of the universe.

The flames got very close, and at times it did not seem that the valuable structures on Mt. Wilson would be saved. However, heroic efforts by firefighters have protected the site so far, and it seems to be out of imminent danger.

The LA Times said “By Tuesday afternoon, the crews were back at the observatory, and an intensified aerial assault was under way. Helicopters bombarded the canopies of trees with fire-retardant gel and foam. A pair of 18-wheelers angled up Mt. Wilson Road to deliver two house-sized earthmovers, which were put to work scraping the hillsides clean of brush.”

Related articles on OEN

GLloyd Rowsey Presents: A Link to Astounding Pictures of an Uncontrolled Fire

http://www.opednews.com/populum/link.php?id=96391

Station Fire Claims 2 Firefighters", 18 homes
California Fire Update: Station Fire Saturday 8-29-09 with new photo By Meryl Ann Butler

click here

California Fire Update: Station Fire 1:30 pm, Pacific Time 8-28-09 By Meryl Ann Butler

click here

RESOURCES

Los Angeles fire map: Mt. Wilson, Tujunga, Acton, Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre
click here

Accessed Sept 2, 2009.

Firefighters wage 5-day battle to save Mt. Wilson Observatory click here

Crews probe point of origin as Station fire marches east click here

Station Fire: More
Progress Made Today
click here

Station Fire 127,513 Acres in Size, 22% Contained click here

Mt. Wilson Observatory escapes serious damage
click here

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.