NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

A FireCode used by the USDA Forest Service to track and compile cost information for emergency initial attack fire suppression expenditures for A, B, C, & D size class fires on Forest Service lands.

To jettison a load of water or retardant from an aircraft, or terminate a preplanned aircraft maneuver.

A designated area where unused quantities of water or fire retardant may be jettisoned, usually to permit an airtanker to land with less than a full load.

Term frequently used in aviation operations, usually in connection with a stated altitude.

According to the American Meteorological Society, (also called vapor density).  In a system of moist air, the ratio of the mass of water vapor present to the volume occupied by the mixture; that is, the density of the water vapor component.

Act of soaking up and retaining a gas in liquid or in a solid; also retention of radiant energy.

Material (usually a flammable liquid) used to initiate or increase the spread of a fire.

The potential fire loss a community is willing to accept rather than provide resources to reduce such losses.

The burning of understory prior to the sale of forest products to improve the efficiency of timber marking and harvesting.

An event, usually managed by organizations external to the fire community, for which the primary focus is for dealing with an accident and assistance to potential victims. This category includes accidents such as: automobile, aircraft, train, watercraft, and industrial.

Agency-specific accounting data. Each agency assigns a specific accounting code to an incident.

Cost reports utilized for financial obligation purposes.

Any tactical plan developed by any element of ICS in support of the incident action plan.

A fire in which a solid flame develops in the crowns of trees, but the surface and crown phases advance as a linked unit dependent on each other.

Any fire that has not been called "out".

Resources checked in and assigned work tasks on an incident.

The thing that a person is doing when a wildland fire ignition occurs.

Actions necessary to conduct a future treatment or evaluate the success of a completed treatment that do not affect fuel or vegetative conditions, community adaptation, public safety, or public land access through their completion.

Fuels resulting from, or altered by, forestry practices such as timber harvest or thinning, as opposed to naturally created fuels.

Further refines wildfire cause supporting data, providing information for prevention programs for targeted messaging.

Common name of activity

Type of activity or event

Date when treatment was physcially completed

Term used in flight planning/following to document actual time spent flying between points.

Term used in flight planning/following to document time of arrival at a point.

Term used in flight planning/following to document time of departure from a point.

A device for connecting hoses of the same size with non-matching hose threads, or connecting a threaded coupling to a quick-connect coupling.

According to the American Meteorological Society, a process in which a system does not interact with its surroundings by virtue of a temperature difference between them. In an adiabatic process any change in internal energy (for a system of fixed mass) is solely a consequence of working. For an ideal gas and for most atmospheric systems, compression results in warming, expansion results in cooling.

A public information description of the relative severity of the current fire danger situation.

A team that supports incident agencies by processing payments for resources. Resources may include emergency equipment, casuals, local vendors for supplies, etc.

Individual responsible for incident agency business management functions, such as personnel, procurement, fiscal, etc.

Period of seven consecutive calendar days designated in advance by the head of a department (5 U.S.C. 6101(a)).

A person hired and compensated under the Pay Plan for Emergency Workers.

Oral or written statement tending to link its maker to involvement in a particular crime.

Advanced life support skills performed by an EMS practitioner or service, e.g. intravenous fluids and drug administration.

Moving a hose lay toward a specified area from the point where the hose-carrying apparatus has stopped.

That portion of the fire with rapid fire spread with higher intensity which is normally burning with the wind and/or up slope.

The period of combustion when a fire is spreading, usually accompanied by flaming combustion that releases heat to sustain the convection column.

According to the American Meteorological Society, the process of transport of an atmospheric property solely by the mass motion of the atmosphere; also the rate of change of the value of the advected property at a given point.

A time-sensitive alert from an NWCG Committee to the wildland fire community regarding procedural changes, equipment information and/or use updates, potential safety hazards, etc.  Yellow hash-marked bordered stationary will be associated with this type of alert.

A fire-trenching or digging tool having a sharp, tempered blade, which is useful for heavy grubbing, trenching, and light cutting.

A system for, or the act of discovering, locating, and reporting fires from aircraft.

Standing and supported live and dead combustibles not in direct contact with the ground and consisting mainly of foliage, twigs, branches, stems, cones, bark, and vines.

Ignition of fuels by dropping incendiary devices or materials from aircraft.

Inclusive term applied to equipment designed to ignite wildland fuels from an aircraft.

Use of aircraft for detecting and observing fire behavior, values-at-risk, suppression activity, and other critical factors to facilitate command decisions on strategy and tactics needed for fire suppression.

An ignition device suspended under a helicopter, capable of dispensing ignited fuel to the ground for assistance in burning out or backfiring.

A statement of declaration in writing and affirmed before an official with authority to administer an oath; a statement of declaration alleging fact to support the issuance of a search or arrest warrant.

A structured review or de-brief process of an event, focused on performance standards, that enables participants to discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses. After action reviews, informal or formal, follow the same general format, involve the exchange of ideas and observations, and focus on improving performance. 

A way to group people based on their chronological age and their position in the life cycle as it relates to the age demographic. This information provides valuable insight to Communication, Education, and Prevention personnel in developing products to reach and educate on wildland fire prevention.