[Delano]

The morning update:

The Station Fire is now at 140,150 acres. The Station Fire continues to burn within the Angeles National Forest and near surrounding foothill communities of La Canada-Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton, Soledad Canyon, Pasadena and Glendale. Steep terrain, decadent old growth brush and hot dry weather are factors that drive fire activity. Evacuations and a forest closure order remain in effect.

On the more densely populated southern flank of the fire where terrain has not allowed crews to directly attack the fires edge, firefighters have instead (when weather conditions allow) performed tactical firing out operations to remove fuel in the vicinity oof structures. This strategy was successful last night and will continue throughout today and tonight added by higher humidity and predicted southwest winds that should push the fire away from communities and back onto already burned area. In the area of Sierra Madre and Monrovia where terrain is more favorable for firefighters crews are attempting to keep the fire north away from the communities with the assistance of helicopters and air tankers.

Crews have measured success on the western flank of the fire and are working to hold yesterday and last night's successful operations. Crews have taken an aggressive direct attack strategy to the Bear Divide area, constructing fire breaks with dozers and by hand crew. Last night they followed up with a successful burn-out operations and are working hard today to strengthen that line. Additional contingency lines are being constructed down to Highway 14. A large group of structural protection engines are in place in Little Tujunga Canyon.

The fire has gained little ground to the north in the last 24 hours and favorable conditions have allowed crews to begin construction of direct dozerline on the north flank of the fire from the Juniper Flats to Soledad Canyon Road. This effort has lowered the risk to the Acton and Soledad Canyon area, however substantial work remains to secure the north flank

Due to limited access to the fires eastern perimeter and predicted southwest winds, the fire is expect to continue it's easterly progression towards Juniper Creek, Highway 39 and San Gabriel Canyon area. Crews are preparing several lines of defense along the northeast side of the fire in the Juniper Hills area.

Structural protection crews are back in place on Mount Wilson today continuing preparation for its defense. While the mountain top is not yet out of harm's way, crews are more hopeful about its defense today after additional fuel break construction has been put in place.

There are a variety of aviation resources available to this fire, including our typical helicopters and conventional airtankers. The helicopters are being used for a variety of Logistical and Operational type missions. Logistical missions including: moving equipment and firefighters to remote locations on the fire. Operational missions include providing water dropping support to ground fire fighters and structure protection. The conventional airtankers are dropping fire reerunant in direct support of personnel and equipment constructing fire line, and structure protection as well as indirect line construction for perimeter control. In addition to these resources we also have available an unprecedented number of additional aviation resource that can be deployed. These include the DC-10 and 747 aircraft that have a capacity of 12,000 gallons and 20,000 gallons respectively. We also have the Martin Mars and 2 Canadair 415 water scooping aircraft available with a 7,200 gallon and 1,600 gallon capacity respectively.

All of these aircraft serve a purpose in different situations and conditions and we try to deploy them where they can do the best job in the safest manner. It is important to remember that all of these aircraft are support tools for the ground firefighter and do not "put out" the fire by themselves. Drops need to be followed up by ground crews and more importantly they may be totally ineffective due to high fire intensity or long range spotting of the fire. Visibility is also a very critical factor for aircraft as they need to have sufficient forward visibility in order to get in and fly safely. Fixed-wing aircraft will require increased visibility requirements then helicopters due to their higher airspeed and their inability to stop and hover.

Containment is at 22% with a total of a little over 140,000 acres burnt.

They also added two more incident commanders.