On August 13, 2009, the La Brea Fire in southern California grew by roughly 10,000 acres (40 square kilometers). The fire also spread to the southwest into the Bear Canyon area. As a result, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders affecting residents of Tepusquet, Colson, and Ruiz Canyons, according to the August 13 evening update from InciWeb.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this photo-like image of La Brea fire on August 12, 2009. The fire burns west-southwest of Bakersfield, sending a thick plume of smoke toward the southwest. Red outlines indicate where MODIS has detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with active fires.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.
