Case Study of a Community Affected by the Witch and Guejito Fires.
Case Study of a Community Affected by the Witch and
Guejito Fires.
(5481 K)
Maranghides, A.; Mell, W. E.
NIST Technical Note 1635; NIST TN 1635; 60 p. April
2009.
Keywords:
wildland fires; wildland/urban interface; case
histories; ignition; weather effects; fuels; moisture;
time; fire spread; structures; exposure; fire damage;
fire behavior; fire losses; risk assessment; mitigation;
cost analysis; home fires; data analysis; impact
survivability; computer models; fire fighters; fire
fighting; fire statistics
Abstract:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has a Reduced Risk of Fire Spread in
Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Communities research
program. The program objective is to develop, by the end
of FY2013 first generation tools for improved risk
assessment and risk mitigation in WUI (wildland-urban
interface) communities at risk from wildfires. These
tools will be developed and tested through a coordinated
effort that includes laboratory and field measurements,
physics-based fire behavior models, and economic cost
analysis models. The NIST WUI Team was invited by CAL
FIRE to collect post incident data from the California
October 2007 fires. Early on, the NIST WUI Team
initiated a case study within the Witch Fire perimeter.
The case study is focused on The Trails development at
Rancho Bernardo, north of the City of San Diego. There
were 274 homes in The Trails, with 245 within the fire
perimeter 74 homes were completely destroyed and 16 were
partly damaged. Field measurements included structure
particulars, specifically roof type, proximity of
combustibles to the structure, and damage to wildland
and residential vegetation. Documentation included over
11 000 pictures. The data collected and the data
analysis to be conducted are divided into three initial
papers. This paper will address the event timeline
reconstruction and general fire behavior observations.
The second paper will investigate the impacts of
structure attributes, landscaping characteristics,
topographical features and wildland fire exposure on
structure survivability. Lastly, the third paper will
investigate the use computer modeling as a tool to
understand fire behavior at the WUI.
