Initial Reconnaissance of the 2011 Wildland-Urban Interface Fires in Amarillo, Texas

Abstract

On February 27, 2011, a fire began in the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas, that destroyed or damaged buildings in three housing developments. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as part of its Disaster and Failure Studies Program, deployed a team within 44 h of ignition to conduct an initial reconnaissance to document the fire event losses and fire behavior. The deployment was conducted jointly with the Texas Forest Service. Of interest to the NIST deployment was the fire behavior and effects on fire losses of topographical features, structure construction and defensive actions. The two communities initially evaluated were the Willow Creek South Complex and the Tanglewood Complex. Within 72 h after data collection initiation, the Tanglewood fire became the focus of the deployment. Additionally, destroyed and damaged structure data were collected to support the local and state damage assessment efforts. The Tanglewood Complex wildland-urban interface fire was responsible for the destruction of approximately 101 structures including 35 residences. The overall objectives of this study are to establish the likely technical factor or factors responsible for the damage, failure, and/or successful performance of buildings and/or infrastructure in the aftermath of the fire, and to recommend, as necessary, specific improvements to standards, codes, and practices based on study findings. This study also may be used to define areas of future research. This summary paper addresses the particulars of the deployment and the data collection methodology used. A second more detailed technical paper will provide the event timeline reconstruction and general fire behavior observations as well as investigate the impacts of structure attributes, landscaping characteristics, topographical features and wildland fire exposure on structure survivability.