2011 Wildland Urban Interface Amarillo Fires Report #2 – Assessment of Fire Behavior and WUI Measurement Science

Published

February 10, 2016

Author(s)

Alexander Maranghides, Derek McNamara

Abstract

On February 27, 2011, three fires began in the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas, two of which destroyed or damaged buildings in multiple housing developments. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as part of its Disaster and Failure Studies Program, began gathering electronic data for the incident within 6 hours of the Tanglewood fire front moving through the Palisades Community in Lake Tanglewood. NIST and the Texas Forest Service (TFS) integrated a field data collection team into the Incident Command System (ICS) within 48 hours to conduct a post-fire assessment. Initially, both the Willow Creek South Complex and Tanglewood Complex fires were assessed. Within 72 hours after ICS integration, the Tanglewood Fire became the focus of the deployment. The deployment also supported local and state damage assessment efforts. This second report provides the event timeline reconstruction and general fire behavior observations. Additionally, a general assessment of defensive actions is presented to show the spatial extent of these actions and identify potential structure and parcel level ignition mechanisms. Topographic characteristics within the affected communities are discussed. This report also details structural and vegetative element ignition mechanisms throughout the communities affected by the Tanglewood Fire. A discussion of current WUI mitigation information is conducted in the context of applicable hazard mitigation for the affected communities and an assessment of WUI fire measurement science is presented.

Citation

Technical Note (NIST TN) - 1909

Report Number

1909

NIST Pub Series

Technical Note (NIST TN)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1909

Keywords

Amarillo fires, community fires, fire data collection, fire behavior, Tanglewood Fire, Wildland Urban Interface, WUI, WUI data collection

Citation

Maranghides, A. and McNamara, D. (2016), 2011 Wildland Urban Interface Amarillo Fires Report #2 – Assessment of Fire Behavior and WUI Measurement Science, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1909 (Accessed April 23, 2024)