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Fire Terminology from NWCG
(National Wildfire Coordinating Group)
[pdf
version of the NWCG Fire Glossary- PMS 205]
Aerial Fuels: All live and dead vegetation
in the forest canopy or above surface fuels, including tree branches,
twigs and cones, snags, moss, and high brush.
Aerial Ignition: Ignition of fuels by dropping incendiary
devices or materials from aircraft.
Air Tanker: A fixed-wing aircraft equipped to drop fire
retardants or suppressants.
Agency: Any federal, state, or county government
organization participating with jurisdictional responsibilities.
Anchor Point: An advantageous location, usually a barrier
to fire spread, from which to start building a fire line. An anchor
point is used to reduce the chance of firefighters being flanked by
fire.
Aramid: The generic name for a high-strength,
flame-resistant synthetic fabric used in the shirts and jeans of
firefighters. Nomex, a brand name for aramid fabric, is the term
commonly used by firefighters.
Aspect: Direction toward which a slope faces.
Backfire: A fire set along the inner edge of a fireline to
consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire and/or change the direction
of force of the fire's convection column.
Backpack Pump: A portable sprayer with hand-pump, fed from
a liquid-filled container fitted with straps, used mainly in fire and
pest control. (See also Bladder Bag.)
Bambi Bucket: A collapsible bucket slung below a
helicopter. Used to dip water from a variety of sources for fire
suppression.
Behave: A system of interactive computer programs for
modeling fuel and fire behavior that consists of two systems: BURN and
FUEL.
Bladder Bag: A collapsible backpack portable sprayer made
of neoprene or high-strength nylon fabric fitted with a pump. (See also
Backpack Pump.)
Blow-up: A sudden increase in fire intensity or rate of
spread strong enough to prevent direct control or to upset control
plans. Blow-ups are often accompanied by violent convection and may have
other characteristics of a fire storm. (See Flare-up.)
Brush: A collective term that refers to stands of
vegetation dominated by shrubby, woody plants, or low growing trees,
usually of a type undesirable for livestock or timber management.
Brush Fire: A fire burning in vegetation that is
predominantly shrubs, brush and scrub growth.
Bucket Drops: The dropping of fire retardants or
suppressants from specially designed buckets slung below a helicopter.
Buffer Zones: An area of reduced vegetation that separates
wildlands from vulnerable residential or business developments. This
barrier is similar to a greenbelt in that it is usually used for another
purpose such as agriculture, recreation areas, parks, or golf courses.
Bump-up Method: A progressive method of building a fire
line on a wildfire without changing relative positions in the line. Work
is begun with a suitable space between workers. Whenever one worker
overtakes another, all workers ahead move one space forward and resume
work on the uncompleted part of the line. The last worker does not move
ahead until completing his or her space.
Burn Out: Setting fire inside a control line to widen it
or consume fuel between the edge of the fire and the control line.
Burning Ban: A declared ban on open air burning within a
specified area, usually due to sustained high fire danger.
Burning Conditions: The state of the combined factors of
the environment that affect fire behavior in a specified fuel type.
Burning Index: An estimate of the potential difficulty of
fire containment as it relates to the flame length at the most rapidly
spreading portion of a fire's perimeter.
Burning Period: That part of each 24-hour period when
fires spread most rapidly, typically from 10:00 a.m. to sundown.
Campfire: As used to classify the cause of a wildland
fire, a fire that was started for cooking or warming that spreads
sufficiently from its source to require action by a fire control agency.
Candle or Candling: A single tree or a very small clump of
trees which is burning from the bottom up.
Chain: A unit of linear measurement equal to 66 feet.
Closure: Legal restriction, but not necessarily
elimination of specified activities such as smoking, camping, or entry
that might cause fires in a given area.
Cold Front: The leading edge of a relatively cold air mass
that displaces warmer air. The heavier cold air may cause some of the
warm air to be lifted. If the lifted air contains enough moisture, the
result may be cloudiness, precipitation, and thunderstorms. If both air
masses are dry, no clouds may form. Following the passage of a cold
front in the Northern Hemisphere, westerly or northwesterly winds of 15
to 30 or more miles per hour often continue for 12 to 24 hours.
Cold Trailing: A method of controlling a partly dead fire
edge by carefully inspecting and feeling with the hand for heat to
detect any fire, digging out every live spot, and trenching any live
edge.
Command Staff: The command staff consists of the
information officer, safety officer and liaison officer. They report
directly to the incident commander and may have assistants.
Complex: Two or more individual incidents located in the
same general area which are assigned to a single incident commander or
unified command.
Contain a fire: A fuel break around the fire has been
completed. This break may include natural barriers or manually and/or
mechanically constructed line.
Control a fire: The complete extinguishment of a fire,
including spot fires. Fireline has been strengthened so that flare-ups
from within the perimeter of the fire will not break through this line.
Control Line: All built or natural fire barriers and
treated fire edge used to control a fire.
Cooperating Agency: An agency supplying assistance other
than direct suppression, rescue, support, or service functions to the
incident control effort; e.g., Red Cross, law enforcement agency,
telephone company, etc.
Coyote Tactics: A progressive line construction duty
involving self-sufficient crews that build fire line until the end of
the operational period, remain at or near the point while off duty, and
begin building fire line again the next operational period where they
left off.
Creeping Fire: Fire burning with a low flame and spreading
slowly.
Crew Boss: A person in supervisory charge of usually 16 to
21 firefighters and responsible for their performance, safety, and
welfare.
Crown Fire (Crowning): The movement of fire through the
crowns of trees or shrubs more or less independently of the surface
fire.
Curing: Drying and browning of herbaceous vegetation or
slash.
Dead Fuels: Fuels with no living tissue in which moisture
content is governed almost entirely by atmospheric moisture (relative
humidity and precipitation), dry-bulb temperature, and solar radiation.
Debris Burning: A fire spreading from any fire originally
set for the purpose of clearing land or for rubbish, garbage, range,
stubble, or meadow burning.
Defensible Space: An area either natural or manmade where
material capable of causing a fire to spread has been treated, cleared,
reduced, or changed to act as a barrier between an advancing wildland
fire and the loss to life, property, or resources. In practice,
"defensible space" is defined as an area a minimum of 30 feet around a
structure that is cleared of flammable brush or vegetation.
Deployment: See Fire Shelter Deployment.
Detection: The act or system of discovering and locating
fires.
Direct Attack: Any treatment of burning fuel, such as by
wetting, smothering, or chemically quenching the fire or by physically
separating burning from unburned fuel.
Dispatch: The implementation of a command decision to move
a resource or resources from one place to another.
Dispatcher: A person employed who receives reports of
discovery and status of fires, confirms their locations, takes action
promptly to provide people and equipment likely to be needed for control
in first attack, and sends them to the proper place.
Dispatch Center: A facility from which resources are
directly assigned to an incident.
Division: Divisions are used to divide an incident into
geographical areas of operation. Divisions are established when the
number of resources exceeds the span-of-control of the operations chief.
A division is located with the Incident Command System organization
between the branch and the task force/strike team.
Dozer: Any tracked vehicle with a front-mounted blade used
for exposing mineral soil.
Dozer Line: Fire line constructed by the front blade of a
dozer.
Drip Torch: Hand-held device for igniting fires by
dripping flaming liquid fuel on the materials to be burned; consists of
a fuel fount, burner arm, and igniter. Fuel used is generally a mixture
of diesel and gasoline.
Drop Zone: Target area for air tankers, helitankers, and
cargo dropping.
Drought Index: A number representing net effect of
evaporation, transpiration, and precipitation in producing cumulative
moisture depletion in deep duff or upper soil layers.
Dry Lightning Storm: Thunderstorm in which negligible
precipitation reaches the ground. Also called a dry storm.
Duff: The layer of decomposing organic materials lying
below the litter layer of freshly fallen twigs, needles, and leaves and
immediately above the mineral soil.
Energy Release Component (ERC): The computed total heat
released per unit area (British thermal units per square foot) within
the fire front at the head of a moving fire.
Engine: Any ground vehicle providing specified levels of
pumping, water and hose capacity.
Engine Crew: Firefighters assigned to an engine. The
Fireline Handbook defines the minimum crew makeup by engine type.
Entrapment: A situation where personnel are unexpectedly
caught in a fire behavior-related, life-threatening position where
planned escape routes or safety zones are absent, inadequate, or
compromised. An entrapment may or may not include deployment of a fire
shelter for its intended purpose. These situations may or may not result
in injury. They include "near misses."
Environmental Assessment (EA): EAs were authorized by the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. They are concise,
analytical documents prepared with public participation that determine
if an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is needed for a particular
project or action. If an EA determines an EIS is not needed, the EA
becomes the document allowing agency compliance with NEPA requirements.
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): EISs were authorized
by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. Prepared with
public participation, they assist decision makers by providing
information, analysis and an array of action alternatives, allowing
managers to see the probable effects of decisions on the environment.
Generally, EISs are written for large-scale actions or geographical
areas.
Equilibrium Moisture Content: Moisture content that a fuel
particle will attain if exposed for an infinite period in an environment
of specified constant temperature and humidity. When a fuel particle
reaches equilibrium moisture content, net exchange of moisture between
it and the environment is zero.
Escape Route: A preplanned and understood route
firefighters take to move to a safety zone or other low-risk area, such
as an already burned area, previously constructed safety area, a meadow
that won't burn, natural rocky area that is large enough to take refuge
without being burned. When escape routes deviate from a defined physical
path, they should be clearly marked (flagged).
Escaped Fire: A fire which has exceeded or is expected to
exceed initial attack capabilities or prescription.
Extended Attack Incident: A wildland fire that has not
been contained or controlled by initial attack forces and for which more
firefighting resources are arriving, en route, or being ordered by the
initial attack incident commander.
Extreme Fire Behavior: "Extreme" implies a level of fire
behavior characteristics that ordinarily precludes methods of direct
control action. One of more of the following is usually involved: high
rate of spread, prolific crowning and/or spotting, presence of fire
whirls, strong convection column. Predictability is difficult because
such fires often exercise some degree of influence on their environment
and behave erratically, sometimes dangerously.
Faller: A person who fells trees. Also called a sawyer or
cutter.
Field Observer: Person responsible to the Situation Unit
Leader for collecting and reporting information about an incident
obtained from personal observations and interviews.
Fine (Light) Fuels: Fast-drying fuels, generally with a
comparatively high surface area-to-volume ratio, which are less than
1/4-inch in diameter and have a timelag of one hour or less. These fuels
readily ignite and are rapidly consumed by fire when dry.
Fingers of a Fire: The long narrow extensions of a fire
projecting from the main body.
Fire Behavior: The manner in which a fire reacts to the
influences of fuel, weather and topography.
Fire Behavior Forecast: Prediction of probable fire
behavior, usually prepared by a Fire Behavior Officer, in support of
fire suppression or prescribed burning operations.
Fire Behavior Specialist: A person responsible to the
Planning Section Chief for establishing a weather data collection system
and for developing fire behavior predictions based on fire history,
fuel, weather and topography.
Fire Break: A natural or constructed barrier used to stop
or check fires that may occur, or to provide a control line from which
to work.
Fire Cache: A supply of fire tools and equipment assembled
in planned quantities or standard units at a strategic point for
exclusive use in fire suppression.
Fire Crew: An organized group of firefighters under the
leadership of a crew leader or other designated official.
Fire Front: The part of a fire within which continuous
flaming combustion is taking place. Unless otherwise specified the fire
front is assumed to be the leading edge of the fire perimeter. In ground
fires, the fire front may be mainly smoldering combustion.
Fire Intensity: A general term relating to the heat energy
released by a fire.
Fire Line: A linear fire barrier that is scraped or dug to
mineral soil.
Fire Load: The number and size of fires historically
experienced on a specified unit over a specified period (usually one
day) at a specified index of fire danger.
Fire Management Plan (FMP): A strategic plan that defines
a program to manage wildland and prescribed fires and documents the Fire
Management Program in the approved land use plan. The plan is
supplemented by operational plans such as preparedness plans, preplanned
dispatch plans, prescribed fire plans, and prevention plans.
Fire Perimeter: The entire outer edge or boundary of a
fire.
Fire Season: 1) Period(s) of the year during which
wildland fires are likely to occur, spread, and affect resource values
sufficient to warrant organized fire management activities. 2) A legally
enacted time during which burning activities are regulated by state or
local authority.
Fire Shelter: An aluminized tent offering protection by
means of reflecting radiant heat and providing a volume of breathable
air in a fire entrapment situation. Fire shelters should only be used in
life-threatening situations, as a last resort.
Fire Shelter Deployment: The removing of a fire shelter
from its case and using it as protection against fire.
Fire Storm: Violent convection caused by a large
continuous area of intense fire. Often characterized by destructively
violent surface indrafts, near and beyond the perimeter, and sometimes
by tornado-like whirls.
Fire Triangle: Instructional aid in which the sides of a
triangle are used to represent the three factors (oxygen, heat, fuel)
necessary for combustion and flame production; removal of any of the
three factors causes flame production to cease.
Fire Use Module (Prescribed Fire Module): A team of
skilled and mobile personnel dedicated primarily to prescribed fire
management. These are national and interagency resources, available
throughout the prescribed fire season, that can ignite, hold and monitor
prescribed fires.
Fire Weather: Weather conditions that influence fire ignition, behavior
and suppression.
Fire Weather Watch: A term used by fire weather
forecasters to notify using agencies, usually 24 to 72 hours ahead of
the event, that current and developing meteorological conditions may
evolve into dangerous fire weather.
Fire Whirl: Spinning vortex column of ascending hot air
and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris, and
flame. Fire whirls range in size from less than one foot to more than
500 feet in diameter. Large fire whirls have the intensity of a small
tornado.
Firefighting Resources: All people and major items of
equipment that can or potentially could be assigned to fires.
Flame Height: The average maximum vertical extension of
flames at the leading edge of the fire front. Occasional flashes that
rise above the general level of flames are not considered. This distance
is less than the flame length if flames are tilted due to wind or slope.
Flame Length: The distance between the flame tip and the
midpoint of the flame depth at the base of the flame (generally the
ground surface); an indicator of fire intensity.
Flaming Front: The zone of a moving fire where the
combustion is primarily flaming. Behind this flaming zone combustion is
primarily glowing. Light fuels typically have a shallow flaming front,
whereas heavy fuels have a deeper front. Also called fire front.
Flanks of a Fire: The parts of a fire's perimeter that are
roughly parallel to the main direction of spread.
Flare-up: Any sudden acceleration of fire spread or
intensification of a fire. Unlike a blow-up, a flare-up lasts a
relatively short time and does not radically change control plans.
Flash Fuels: Fuels such as grass, leaves, draped pine
needles, fern, tree moss and some kinds of slash, that ignite readily
and are consumed rapidly when dry. Also called fine fuels.
Forb: A plant with a soft, rather than permanent woody
stem, that is not a grass or grass-like plant.
Fuel: Combustible material. Includes, vegetation, such as
grass, leaves, ground litter, plants, shrubs and trees, that feed a
fire. (See Surface Fuels.)
Fuel Bed: An array of fuels usually constructed with
specific loading, depth and particle size to meet experimental
requirements; also, commonly used to describe the fuel composition in
natural settings.
Fuel Loading: The amount of fuel present expressed
quantitatively in terms of weight of fuel per unit area.
Fuel Model: Simulated fuel complex (or combination of
vegetation types) for which all fuel descriptors required for the
solution of a mathematical rate of spread model have been specified.
Fuel Moisture (Fuel Moisture Content): The quantity of
moisture in fuel expressed as a percentage of the weight when thoroughly
dried at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fuel Reduction: Manipulation, including combustion, or
removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of ignition and/or to lessen
potential damage and resistance to control.
Fuel Type: An identifiable association of fuel elements of
a distinctive plant species, form, size, arrangement, or other
characteristics that will cause a predictable rate of fire spread or
difficulty of control under specified weather conditions.
Fusee: A colored flare designed as a railway warning
device and widely used to ignite suppression and prescription fires.
General Staff: The group of incident management personnel
reporting to the incident commander. They may each have a deputy, as
needed. Staff consists of operations section chief, planning section
chief, logistics section chief, and finance/administration section
chief.
Geographic Area: A political boundary designated by the
wildland fire protection agencies, where these agencies work together in
the coordination and effective utilization
Ground Fuel: All combustible materials below the surface
litter, including duff, tree or shrub roots, punchy wood, peat, and
sawdust, that normally support a glowing combustion without flame.
Haines Index: An atmospheric index used to indicate the
potential for wildfire growth by measuring the stability and dryness of
the air over a fire.
Hand Line: A fireline built with hand tools.
Hazard Reduction: Any treatment of a hazard that reduces
the threat of ignition and fire intensity or rate of spread.
Head of a Fire: The side of the fire having the fastest
rate of spread.
Heavy Fuels: Fuels of large diameter such as snags, logs,
large limb wood, that ignite and are consumed more slowly than flash
fuels.
Heel of a Fire: The side of the fire having the slowest
rate of spread. Flanks are the sides.
Helibase: The main location within the
general incident area for parking, fueling, maintaining, and loading
helicopters. The helibase is usually located at or near the incident
base.
Helispot: A temporary landing spot for helicopters.
Helitack: The use of helicopters to transport crews,
equipment, and fire retardants or suppressants to the fire line during
the initial stages of a fire.
Helitack Crew: A group of firefighters trained in the
technical and logistical use of helicopters for fire suppression.
Holding Actions: Planned actions required to achieve
wildland prescribed fire management objectives. These actions have
specific implementation timeframes for fire use actions but can have
less sensitive implementation demands for suppression actions.
Holding Resources: Firefighting personnel and equipment
assigned to do all required fire suppression work following fireline
construction but generally not including extensive mop-up.
Hose Lay: Arrangement of connected lengths of fire hose
and accessories on the ground, beginning at the first pumping unit and
ending at the point of water delivery.
Hotshot Crew: A highly trained fire crew used mainly to
build fireline by hand.
Hotspot: A particular active part of a fire.
Hotspotting: Reducing or stopping the spread of fire at points of
particularly rapid rate of spread or special threat, generally the first
step in prompt control, with emphasis on first priorities.
Incident: A human-caused or natural occurrence, such as
wildland fire, that requires emergency service action to prevent or
reduce the loss of life or damage to property or natural resources.
Incident Action Plan (IAP): Contains objectives reflecting
the overall incident strategy and specific tactical actions and
supporting information for the next operational period. The plan may be
oral or written. When written, the plan may have a number of
attachments, including: incident objectives, organization assignment
list, division assignment, incident radio communication plan, medical
plan, traffic plan, safety plan, and incident map.
Incident Command Post (ICP): Location at which primary
command functions are executed. The ICP may be co-located with the
incident base or other incident facilities.
Incident Command System (ICS): The combination of
facilities, equipment, personnel, procedure and communications operating
within a common organizational structure, with responsibility for the
management of assigned resources to effectively accomplish stated
objectives pertaining to an incident.
Incident Commander: Individual responsible for the
management of all incident operations at the incident site.
Incident Management Team: The incident commander and
appropriate general or command staff personnel assigned to manage an
incident.
Incident Objectives: Statements of guidance and direction
necessary for selection of appropriate strategy(ies), and the tactical
direction of resources. Incident objectives are based on realistic
expectations of what can be accomplished when all allocated resources
have been effectively deployed.
Infrared Detection: The use of heat sensing equipment,
known as Infrared Scanners, for detection of heat sources that are not
visually detectable by the normal surveillance methods of either ground
or air patrols.
Initial Attack: The actions taken by the first resources
to arrive at a wildfire to protect lives and property, and prevent
further extension of the fire.
Job Hazard Analysis: This analysis of a project is
completed by staff to identify hazards to employees and the public. It
identifies hazards, corrective actions and the required safety equipment
to ensure public and employee safety.
Jump Spot: Selected landing area for smokejumpers.
Jump Suit: Approved protection suite work by smokejumpers.
Keech Byram Drought Index (KBDI): Commonly-used drought
index adapted for fire management applications, with a numerical range
from 0 (no moisture deficiency) to 800 (maximum drought).
Knock Down: To reduce the flame or heat on the more
vigorously burning parts of a fire edge.
Ladder Fuels: Fuels which provide vertical continuity
between strata, thereby allowing fire to carry from surface fuels into
the crowns of trees or shrubs with relative ease. They help initiate and
assure the continuation of crowning.
Large Fire: 1) For statistical purposes, a fire burning
more than a specified area of land e.g., 300 acres. 2) A fire burning
with a size and intensity such that its behavior is determined by
interaction between its own convection column and weather conditions
above the surface.
Lead Plane: Aircraft with pilot used to make dry runs over
the target area to check wing and smoke conditions and topography and to
lead air tankers to targets and supervise their drops.
Light (Fine) Fuels: Fast-drying fuels, generally with a
comparatively high surface area-to-volume ratio, which are less than
1/4-inch in diameter and have a timelag of one hour or less. These fuels
readily ignite and are rapidly consumed by fire when dry.
Lightning Activity Level (LAL): A number, on a scale of 1
to 6, that reflects frequency and character of cloud-to-ground
lightning. The scale is exponential, based on powers of 2 (i.e., LAL 3
indicates twice the lightning of LAL 2).
Line Scout: A firefighter who determines the location of a
fire line.
Litter: Top layer of the forest, scrubland, or grassland
floor, directly above the fermentation layer, composed of loose debris
of dead sticks, branches, twigs, and recently fallen leaves or needles,
little altered in structure by decomposition.
Live Fuels: Living plants, such as trees, grasses, and
shrubs, in which the seasonal moisture content cycle is controlled
largely by internal physiological mechanisms, rather than by external
weather influences.
Micro-Remote Environmental Monitoring System (Micro-REMS):
Mobile weather monitoring station. A Micro-REMS usually accompanies an
incident meteorologist and ATMU to an incident.
Mineral Soil: Soil layers below the predominantly organic
horizons; soil with little combustible material.
Mobilization: The process and procedures used by all
organizations, federal, state and local for activating, assembling, and
transporting all resources that have been requested to respond to or
support an incident.
Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS): A
manufactured unit consisting of five interconnecting tanks, a control
pallet, and a nozzle pallet, with a capacity of 3,000 gallons, designed
to be rapidly mounted inside an unmodified C-130 (Hercules) cargo
aircraft for use in dropping retardant on wildland fires.
Mop-up: To make a fire safe or reduce residual smoke after
the fire has been controlled by extinguishing or removing burning
material along or near the control line, felling snags, or moving logs
so they won't roll downhill.
Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC): A generalized term which
describes the functions and activities of representatives of involved
agencies and/or jurisdictions who come together to make decisions
regarding the prioritizing of incidents, and the sharing and use of
critical resources. The MAC organization is not a part of the on-scene
ICS and is not involved in developing incident strategy or tactics.
Mutual Aid Agreement: Written agreement between agencies
and/or jurisdictions in which they agree to assist one another upon
request, by furnishing personnel and equipment.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): NEPA is the
basic national law for protection of the environment, passed by Congress
in 1969. It sets policy and procedures for environmental protection, and
authorizes Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments
to be used as analytical tools to help federal managers make decisions.
National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS): A uniform fire
danger rating system that focuses on the environmental factors that
control the moisture content of fuels.
National Wildfire Coordinating Group: A group formed under
the direction of the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior and
comprised of representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land
Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and Association of State Foresters. The group's
purpose is to facilitate coordination and effectiveness of wildland fire
activities and provide a forum to discuss, recommend action, or resolve
issues and problems of substantive nature. NWCG is the certifying body
for all courses in the National Fire Curriculum.
Nomex ®: Trade name for a fire resistant synthetic
material used in the manufacturing of flight suits and pants and shirts
used by firefighters (see Aramid).
Normal Fire Season: 1) A season when weather, fire danger,
and number and distribution of fires are about average. 2) Period of the
year that normally comprises the fire season.
Operations Branch Director: Person under the direction of
the operations section chief who is responsible for implementing that
portion of the incident action plan appropriate to the branch.
Operational Period: The period of time scheduled for
execution of a given set of tactical actions as specified in the
Incident Action Plan. Operational periods can be of various lengths,
although usually not more than 24 hours.
Overhead: People assigned to supervisory positions,
including incident commanders, command staff, general staff, directors,
supervisors, and unit leaders.
Pack Test: Used to determine the aerobic capacity of fire
suppression and support personnel and assign physical fitness scores.
The test consists of walking a specified distance, with or without a
weighted pack, in a predetermined period of time, with altitude
corrections.
Paracargo: Anything dropped, or intended for dropping,
from an aircraft by parachute, by other retarding devices, or by free
fall.
Peak Fire Season: That period of the fire season during
which fires are expected to ignite most readily, to burn with greater
than average intensity, and to create damages at an unacceptable level.
Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE): All firefighting
personnel must be equipped with proper equipment and clothing in order
to mitigate the risk of injury from, or exposure to, hazardous
conditions encountered while working. PPE includes, but is not limited
to: 8-inch high-laced leather boots with lug soles, fire shelter, hard
hat with chin strap, goggles, ear plugs, aramid shirts and trousers,
leather gloves and individual first aid kits.
Preparedness: Condition or degree of being ready to cope
with a potential fire situation
Prescribed Fire: Any fire ignited by management actions
under certain, predetermined conditions to meet specific objectives
related to hazardous fuels or habitat improvement. A written, approved
prescribed fire plan must exist, and NEPA requirements must be met,
prior to ignition.
Prescribed Fire Plan (Burn Plan): This document provides
the prescribed fire burn boss information needed to implement an
individual prescribed fire project.
Prescription: Measurable criteria that define conditions
under which a prescribed fire may be ignited, guide selection of
appropriate management responses, and indicate other required actions.
Prescription criteria may include safety, economic, public health,
environmental, geographic, administrative, social, or legal
considerations.
Prevention: Activities directed at reducing the incidence
of fires, including public education, law enforcement, personal contact,
and reduction of fuel hazards.
Project Fire: A fire of such size or complexity that a
large organization and prolonged activity is required to suppress it.
Pulaski: A combination chopping and trenching tool, which
combines a single-bitted axe-blade with a narrow adze-like trenching
blade fitted to a straight handle. Useful for grubbing or trenching in
duff and matted roots. Well-balanced for chopping.
Radiant Burn: A burn received from a radiant heat source.
Radiant Heat Flux: The amount of heat flowing through a
given area in a given time, usually expressed as calories/square
centimeter/second.
Rappelling: Technique of landing specifically trained
firefighters from hovering helicopters; involves sliding down ropes with
the aid of friction-producing devices.
Rate of Spread: The relative activity of a fire in
extending its horizontal dimensions. It is expressed as a rate of
increase of the total perimeter of the fire, as rate of forward spread
of the fire front, or as rate of increase in area, depending on the
intended use of the information. Usually it is expressed in chains or
acres per hour for a specific period in the fire's history.
Reburn: The burning of an area that has been previously
burned but that contains flammable fuel that ignites when burning
conditions are more favorable; an area that has reburned.
Red Card: Fire qualification card issued to fire rated
persons showing their training needs and their qualifications to fill
specified fire suppression and support positions in a large fire
suppression or incident organization.
Red Flag Warning: Term used by fire weather forecasters to
alert forecast users to an ongoing or imminent critical fire weather
pattern.
Rehabilitation: The activities necessary to repair damage
or disturbance caused by wildland fires or the fire suppression
activity.
Relative Humidity (Rh): The ratio of the amount of
moisture in the air, to the maximum amount of moisture that air would
contain if it were saturated. The ratio of the actual vapor pressure to
the saturated vapor pressure.
Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS): An apparatus that
automatically acquires, processes, and stores local weather data for
later transmission to the GOES Satellite, from which the data is
re-transmitted to an earth-receiving station for use in the National
Fire Danger Rating System.
Resources: 1) Personnel, equipment, services and supplies
available, or potentially available, for assignment to incidents. 2) The
natural resources of an area, such as timber, crass, watershed values,
recreation values, and wildlife habitat.
Resource Management Plan (RMP): A document prepared by field
office staff with public participation and approved by field office
managers that provides general guidance and direction for land
management activities at a field office. The RMP identifies the need for
fire in a particular area and for a specific benefit.
Resource Order: An order placed for firefighting or
support resources.
Retardant: A substance or chemical agent which reduced the
flammability of combustibles.
Run (of a fire): The rapid advance of the head of a fire
with a marked change in fire line intensity and rate of spread from that
noted before and after the advance.
Running: A rapidly spreading surface fire with a well-defined
head.
Safety Zone: An area cleared of flammable materials used
for escape in the event the line is outflanked or in case a spot fire
causes fuels outside the control line to render the line unsafe. In
firing operations, crews progress so as to maintain a safety zone close
at hand allowing the fuels inside the control line to be consumed before
going ahead. Safety zones may also be constructed as integral parts of
fuel breaks; they are greatly enlarged areas which can be used with
relative safety by firefighters and their equipment in the event of a
blowup in the vicinity.
Scratch Line: An unfinished preliminary fire line hastily
established or built as an emergency measure to check the spread of
fire.
Severity Funding: Funds provided to increase wildland fire
suppression response capability necessitated by abnormal weather
patterns, extended drought, or other events causing abnormal increase in
the fire potential and/or danger.
Single Resource: An individual, a piece of equipment and
its personnel complement, or a crew or team of individuals with an
identified work supervisor that can be used on an incident.
Size-up: To evaluate a fire to determine a course of
action for fire suppression.
Slash: Debris left after logging, pruning, thinning or
brush cutting; includes logs, chips, bark, branches, stumps and broken
understory trees or brush.
Sling Load: Any cargo carried beneath a helicopter and
attached by a lead line and swivel.
Slop-over: A fire edge that crosses a control line or
natural barrier intended to contain the fire.
Smokejumper: A firefighter who travels to fires by
aircraft and parachute.
Smoke Management: Application of fire intensities and
meteorological processes to minimize degradation of air quality during
prescribed fires.
Smoldering Fire: A fire burning without flame and barely
spreading.
Snag: A standing dead tree or part of a dead tree from
which at least the smaller branches have fallen.
Spark Arrester: A device installed in a chimney, flue, or
exhaust pipe to stop the emission of sparks and burning fragments.
Spot Fire: A fire ignited outside the perimeter of the
main fire by flying sparks or embers.
Spot Weather Forecast: A special forecast issued to fit
the time, topography, and weather of each specific fire. These forecasts
are issued upon request of the user agency and are more detailed,
timely, and specific than zone forecasts.
Spotter: In smokejumping, the person responsible for
selecting drop targets and supervising all aspects of dropping
smokejumpers.
Spotting: Behavior of a fire producing sparks or embers
that are carried by the wind and start new fires beyond the zone of
direct ignition by the main fire.
Staging Area: Locations set up at an incident where
resources can be placed while awaiting a tactical assignment on a
three-minute available basis. Staging areas are managed by the
operations section.
Strategy: The science and art of command as applied to the
overall planning and conduct of an incident.
Strike Team: Specified combinations of the same kind and
type of resources, with common communications, and a leader.
Strike Team Leader: Person responsible to a division/group
supervisor for performing tactical assignments given to the strike team.
Structure Fire: Fire originating in and burning any part
or all of any building, shelter, or other structure.
Suppressant: An agent, such as water or foam, used to
extinguish the flaming and glowing phases of combustion when direction
applied to burning fuels.
Suppression: All the work of extinguishing or containing a
fire, beginning with its discovery.
Surface Fuels: Loose surface litter on the soil surface,
normally consisting of fallen leaves or needles, twigs, bark, cones, and
small branches that have not yet decayed enough to lose their identity;
also grasses, forbs, low and medium shrubs, tree seedlings, heavier
branchwood, downed logs, and stumps interspersed with or partially
replacing the litter.
Swamper: (1) A worker who assists fallers and/or sawyers
by clearing away brush, limbs and small trees. Carries fuel, oil and
tools and watches for dangerous situations. (2) A worker on a dozer crew
who pulls winch line, helps maintain equipment, etc., to speed
suppression work on a fire.
Tactics: Deploying and directing resources on an incident
to accomplish the objectives designated by strategy.
Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR): A restriction
requested by an agency and put into effect by the Federal Aviation
Administration in the vicinity of an incident which restricts the
operation of nonessential aircraft in the airspace around that incident.
Terra Torch ®: Device for throwing a stream of flaming
liquid, used to facilitate rapid ignition during burn out operations on
a wildland fire or during a prescribed fire operation.
Test Fire: A small fire ignited within the planned burn
unit to determine the characteristic of the prescribed fire, such as
fire behavior, detection performance and control measures.
Timelag: Time needed under specified conditions for a fuel
particle to lose about 63 percent of the difference between its initial
moisture content and its equilibrium moisture content. If conditions
remain unchanged, a fuel will reach 95 percent of its equilibrium
moisture content after four timelag periods.
Torching: The ignition and flare-up of a tree or small
group of trees, usually from bottom to top.
Two-way Radio: Radio equipment with transmitters in mobile
units on the same frequency as the base station, permitting conversation
in two directions using the same frequency in turn.
Type: The capability of a firefighting resource in
comparison to another type. Type 1 usually means a greater capability
due to power, size, or capacity.
Uncontrolled Fire: Any fire which threatens to destroy
life, property, or natural resources, and
Underburn: A fire that consumes surface fuels but not
trees or shrubs. (See Surface Fuels.)
Vectors: Directions of fire spread as related to rate of
spread calculations (in degrees from upslope).
Volunteer Fire Department (VFD): A fire department of
which some or all members are unpaid.
Water Tender: A ground vehicle capable of transporting
specified quantities of water.
Weather Information and Management System (WIMS): An
interactive computer system designed to accommodate the weather
information needs of all federal and state natural resource management
agencies. Provides timely access to weather forecasts, current and
historical weather data, the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS),
and the National Interagency Fire Management Integrated Database (NIFMID).
Wet Line: A line of water, or water and chemical
retardant, sprayed along the ground, that serves as a temporary control
line from which to ignite or stop a low-intensity fire.
Wildland Fire: Any nonstructure fire, other than
prescribed fire, that occurs in the wildland.
Wildland Fire Implementation Plan (WFIP): A progressively
developed assessment and operational management plan that documents the
analysis and selection of strategies and describes the appropriate
management response for a wildland fire being managed for resource
benefits.
Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA): A decision-making
process that evaluates alternative suppression strategies against
selected environmental, social, political, and economic criteria.
Provides a record of decisions.
Wildland Fire Use: The management of naturally ignited
wildland fires to accomplish specific prestated resource management
objectives in predefined geographic areas outlined in Fire Management
Plans.
Wildland Urban Interface: The line, area or zone where
structures and other human development meet or intermingle with
undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels.
Wind Vectors: Wind directions used to calculate fire
behavior.
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