This is a timeline of selected tweets from the US Forest Service social media unit created for the Station Fire.
Created by svalot on Oct 22, 2009
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 07:54 PM
Tags: Station Fire Twitter Angeles social media
The Station Fire continued to burn in unpopulated areas for weeks. Finally, after an unsualy October storm, fire crews are able to get the flames 100 percent surrounded. Rehabiliation crews are already working to replace burned power poles and other necessary infrastructure. Photo courtesy Lance Harper, KPCC.
As the more than 160,000 acre fire nears 80 percent containment, the social media team's Twitter and Facebook messages start to shift to post-fire activities.
As the days go on, crews begin making enough progress on the fire that rehabilitation teams make plans to go in. As the plans become available, the social media team sends out Twitter and Facebook messages.
Officials are able to start lifting some road closures. The fire's social media team gets out the info from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department via Twitter. Meantime, more resources arrive, but the fire becoming active in one area delays fire operations in another.
The fire slowly marches toward the town of Wrightwood as fire crews continue to build fire lines. By this point, they have about 65 miles worth of fire line left to build. There are still more than 4,600 firefighters on the scene.
The fire by now has burned more than 157,000 acres and is 51 percent contained. So firefighters can focus their efforts on the flame edges not near populated areas.
Station Fire social media team re-tweets a message about the "incredible view" on the Mount Wilson webcam. That webcam provided spectacular shots of the fire for days and let emergency officials and TV and radio technicians see their transmitter towers during the fire. Photo courtesty webcam on Mount Wilson run by UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy.
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm#imagetop
The Station Fire's social media team has been tweeting all day about where the fire is active and about where firefighters had to pull back because of the flames. The team sends out Twitter and Facebook messages soon after the evening press briefing of fire officials' assessment of the fire.
The Station Fire created towering cloud formations, which would collapse and then rebuild. This went on for days and then died down a bit. When the plumes kicked back up again, the fire's social media team put the word out so people who lived nearby would know what was happening and that the fire from the plume was deep in the forest.
http://mypict.me/show.php?id=x4sU
The fire has now burned more than 148,000 acres and is still less than half contained, but crews say they're making progress. The Twitter messages reflect that.
Fire officials announce the Station Fire has been determined to be arson. Almost immediately, the information is sent out via Twitter and Facebook by the fire's social media unit.
Social media team tweets about firefighter efforts around Mount Wilson, where many TV and radio stations have their transmitters. The fire came very close, but did not end up burning those transmitters.
Social media team uses Twitter and Facebook to get out word of a series of meetings in various communities to let neighbors know about the potential path of and status of the fire.
USFS social media team uses Twitter and Facebook to pass along pictures taken by firefighters and others on the fire lines. In the picture linked here, firefighters fight fire with fire near a Glendale neighborhood.
http://brightkite.com/objects/e6be24c2975b11de8bef003048c10834?referer=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAngelesNF#
US Forest Service tweets about firefighting helicopter video. Forest service officials say like DC-10's and Super Scoopers are tools in the firefighting toolbox, Twitter and other social media are tools in the fire infromation toolbox.
http://www.twitvid.com/C940D
Social media team tweets about burnout operation so locals will know that the smoke they see is supposed to be there.
Social media team tweets about expanded evacuation orders. Until now, the evacuation-related tweets had told people to call 2-1-1.
NASA releases satellite images of the Station Fire and its smoke plume. US Forest Service social media team re-tweets the link to its followers on Twitter.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40011#
Station Fire social media team announces press conference where fire officials detail deaths of two Los Angeles County firefighters. The firefighters died when their vehicle overturned as flames overran their fire camp on Mount Gleason.
US Forest Service social media unit starts sending out Twitter and Facebook messages a few days into the Station Fire. This is the first major fire that the forest service has used such a unit, which was based at the command post, initially at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Sylmar.
Investigators say the Station Fire was started by an arsonist along the Angeles Crest Highway, about one mile north of the Angeles Crest Ranger Station. Photo courtesy the US Forest Service.
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