Los Angeles Station Fire - September, 2009

Many of us in the Los Angeles area who are trained and active in CERT were able to participate and help with the huge Station Fire. I spent most of one weekend helping out at the Fire Camp -- and incredible experience. Acres of Fire Engines. Thousands of firefighters. A Post office, laundry, two block of portable offices, a mobile mapping service, small engine repair (chain saws...), showers, air conditioned sleeping trailers, a massive catering operation, huge stores operation, fuel dump, diesel mechanics, LA County Sheriffs, Los Angeles Police, and on and on.

It was a massive response to a truly dangerous fire and the amount of resources the the Incident Commanders were able to throw at the fire saved thousands of homes. Paved roads and water hydrants and defensive landscaping in the Forest/Urban interface helped, too.

It's amazing how much good a few firefighters can do with the right equipment and good water pressure. And retardant dropping aircraft helped a lot, too.

Moderator

Thank you note from the LA County Sheriffs

As the Station Fire is winding down and our Department's Incident Management Team's start to hand over operations to local control. I would like to personally say THANK YOU!!! to all the kind hearted volunteers that have responded to the call to action.

Over 300 volunteers put in over 5000 hours working support operations for the command post at Hansen Dam for a community of over 5000 responders from all over the country. Volunteers provided much needed traffic control and arson watch patrol operations, and food and refreshments runs to personnel out on fixed posts.

Comments from the CAL Fire, the LASD Command Staff and members of the LASD Incident Management Teams that worked during the week were highly impressed and grateful for all the support and professional attitude of all the volunteers.

I was extremely proud to have worked with such an outstanding group of people, dedicated to service of others. This week also brought a loss to all of us, and Sheriff Volunteers, CERT Volunteers from LAFD, Burbank and Glendale stood in Honor of our fallen brothers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Tonight we have moved the CERT/Volunteer Management Team Command Post to the National Guard Armory in Azusa and have some squads working through tomorrow and hope to completely wrap up our operation by noon.

Please share with us your thoughts, comments and suggestions so we can work to improve and provide a solid after action report that can be shared with other CERTs and Volunteer Law and Fire Agencies as part of the after action report. Comments left here on BigTent or Emailed to wtlee@lasd.org will be pasted within a section of the report.

A Special Thank You to Los Angeles City Fire Department CERT Program, Burbank Fire Department CERT Glendale Fire Department CERT, Claremont Police Department CERT, and the El Monte Police Department Volunteers Citizens On Patrol, without everyone coming together we would not have accomplished our mission. Our partnerships, networking was a testament to volunteer mutual aid efforts for others to follow.

Will keep everyone updated regarding AAR and future events!

Respectfully,

Wilson Lee, Deputy
CERT Coordinator