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 hours to conduct an initial reconnaissance to document the fire event loses and fire behavior. The deployment was conducted jointly with the Texas Forest Service (TFS). 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.