0693-0078 Initial Notification

One-year Post-Fire Field Study of the Chimney Tops 2 Fire in Sevier County, TN

Emergency Communications and Public Response Survey

Initial Notice of Survey (initial notice received via mail)

OMB CONTROL NO. 0693-0078 Expiration date: 07/31/2019

Dear Head of Household:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce, is conducting a study of the Chimney Tops 2 Fire that spread into Sevier County on November 28, 2016. NIST is a research laboratory in Gaithersburg, MD that studies many important topics, including ways to better protect communities from the devastating effects of wildfires. Erica Kuligowski, a disaster sociologist at NIST, is leading this effort and has created a short, 20-minute, questionnaire.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information from people in Sevier County, TN about their experiences with and responses to the public alerts and warnings issued during the November 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire. The important information collected from this study will help Sevier County, as well as other communities in the U.S. to better prepare for wildfire emergencies.

Who Should Complete This Questionnaire?

This questionnaire should be completed by a person who is 18 years of age or older who is also a head of your household. If that’s not you, please give this notice to the person you consider to be a head of your household.

Additionally, the head of household should be able to answer “yes” to the following question:

Were you at home or in the area when the Chimney Tops 2 fire occurred in Sevier County in November, 2016.

If the answer is no, this notice can be discarded, and there is no need to fill out the questionnaire.

If the answer is yes, please consider filling out the questionnaire online. The weblink to the questionnaire is the following: [insert the weblink here]. Please complete and return this questionnaire as soon as possible.

Your participation is voluntary. If you decide to participate in the study, you may withdraw your consent and stop participation at any time without penalty. Also, all of the information that you provide will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. When we report and share our findings, we will combine the data from all participants into summary statistics and tables so no unique individual can be identified. There are NO KNOWN RISKS or direct benefits to you. We hope to gain more knowledge on how you and others were affected by the November 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire, so that we can learn from your experiences to help communities better prepare for similar events in the future.

If you want to know more about this study, please call Erica Kuligowski at (301) 975-2309 or send her an email: erica.kuligowski@nist.gov. If you have questions about your rights as a participant in this study, or have complaints, concerns or issues you want to discuss with someone outside the research team, call the Human Subjects Protection Office at (301) 975-5445.

Thank you for your participation.

This collection of information contains Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) requirements approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the PRA unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control number. For this collection, the OMB Control number is:0693-0078 with an expiration date: July 31, 2019. Public reporting burden for this collection is estimated to be 20 minutes per survey, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Attn: Dr. Erica Kuligowski, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, MS 8662, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8662, telephone 301-975-2309, or via email:erica.kuligowski@nist.gov.