A Case Study of the Camp Fire (California 2018)
Notification, Evacuation, Traffic, and Temporary Refuge Areas

The Camp Fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses.
Named after Camp Creek Road, its place of origin, the fire started on Thursday, November 8, 2018, in Northern California’s Butte County.
Ignited by a faulty electric transmission line, the fire originated above several communities and an east wind drove the fire downhill through developed areas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)  

Download Study Report:
Maranghides A, Link E, Mell W, Hawks S, Brown C, Walton D (2023) A Case Study of the Camp Fire—Notification, Evacuation, Traffic, and Temporary Refuge Areas. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD), NIST Technical Note (TN) 2252.
July 2023,  278 p.
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2252
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/TechnicalNotes/NIST.TN.2252.pdf  

Overview of NIST Camp Fire Case Study Reports

The set of reports on the NIST Camp Fire Case Study, including two follow-on reports and a web-based data visualization tool, are outlined below:

Camp Fire Report #1: Camp Fire Preliminary Reconnaissance [31]

NIST Camp Fire Report #1 focused on the initial reconnaissance deployment and field data collection and includes:

• NIST Disaster and Failure Studies Preliminary Reconnaissance Decision Criteria worksheet
• Preliminary Reconnaissance objectives
• Field deployment timeline
• Initial data collection summary
• Initial findings

Camp Fire Report #2: Preliminary Data Collected from the Camp Fire Reconnaissance [32]

NIST Camp Fire Report #2 focused on data collected from the Preliminary Reconnaissance and includes:

• NIST Damage Assessments of 132 damaged residential structures
• Photographs of structure damage
• Automatic vehicle location (AVL) data
• Radio transcripts
• Incident-related maps

Camp Fire Report #3: Fire Progression Timeline [23]

NIST Camp Fire Report #3 focused on the methodology and the fire progression details, and includes:

• Introduction to the Camp Fire and affected WUI communities
• Pre-fire hazard and preparation
• Data collection and analysis methodology details
• Fire progression details and timeline
• First responder comments
• Technical findings summary
• Recommendations

NIST TN 2252, July 2023 , 234

Camp Fire Report #4: Notification, Evacuation, Traffic and Temporary Refuge Areas (this report)
Specifically, the report includes:

• Pre-fire evacuation and notification plan
• Notification timeline and relation to fire progression
• Evacuation and traffic timeline
• Summary of each TRA
• Relationship between TRAs and burnovers
• Summary of known rescues
• First responder comments
• Technical findings summary
• Recommendations

Camp Fire Report #5: Emergency Response and Defensive Actions

NIST Camp Fire Report #5 will focus on Fire and Law Enforcement response and infrastructure response, including water systems. The report will include:

• An overview of Fire and LE resources on the scene
• Infrastructure response
• Defensive actions: ground operations
• Defensive actions: aerial operations
• Defended structures
• Exposures to NIST-documented damaged structures
• First responder comments
• Technical findings summary
• Recommendations

Camp Fire Case Study Data Visualization Tool

A web-based tool will be provided that will enable users to navigate the Camp Fire in both space and time. All the data presented in NIST Camp Fire Reports #3, #4 and #5 will be included in the tool.