Chatsworth Gets Wildfire Weather Station

Chatsworth is getting a wildfire early-warning weather station.

A Remote Access Weather Station in the hills above Chatsworth and Porter Ranch will alert the Los Angeles Fire Department to potential Red Flag conditions, the second station of its kind in the city.

The Los Angeles City Council Friday unanimously approved Councilman Mitch Englander's motion to transfer $20,159 to the LAFD for the weather station.

Chatsworth is represented by District 12 Councilman Englander.

The only other Remote Access Weather Station in the city lies in  Mount Washington, an area represented by Councilman Jose Huizar.

Huizar spoke about the benefits that the station has brought to his community during Friday’s council meeting.

“One of the benefits is that there are less Red Flag days,” he said. “We have better information so we don’t depend on the regional weather station.”

Englander asked LAFD representatives if the station would help with early deployment of firefighters and equipment, and if his district was one of the most important places in the city to have this type of resource. 

“Any area of the city that has an urban interface where we have brush and homes in the same area, we would support a Remote Access Weather Station,” said Trevor Richmond, LAFD planning section commander. 

Richmond said that the fire department uses the weather station as a management tool and as a way to predict a fire’s behavior in a particular area. 

“Your constituents and the LAFD need to have the ability to have remote access and be able to access that data to make more informed decisions,” he said. 

Englander said that he hoped to see more Remote Access Weather Stations established in other areas of the city.

A spokesman for the LAFD told the Council that the information collected by the new station would serve the entire city, not just Englander’s area.