Anger, frustration still flaring over Station fire

(From the lacanadaonline.com) Ann Benriter stepped gingerly around bits of charred debris and twisted metal that littered the site where her house once stood in the Vogel Flats community in Big Tujunga Canyon. Off to one side were the remnants of two motorcycles, the tires and seats burned away. Her husband, John, hasn’t been able to bring himself to remove them.

“I don’t care what anyone says, they had no intention of saving us,” Benriter said. “All they did was save the ranger station. Every one of these water tanks, every pool, was all full of water. They never did anything.”

One year ago, the Station fire started along Angeles Crest Highway, two miles north of La Cañada Flintridge. It grew into the biggest fire in the history of Los Angeles County, burning through 160,000 acres, destroying more than 80 homes and killing two firefighters before being contained on Oct. 16.

But while the San Gabriel Mountains are showing preliminary signs of recovery — baby greens can be seen on many of the previously ash-gray slopes — the furor surrounding how the firefight was managed by the U.S. Forest Service shows no sign of abating.

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