NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview

The NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire provides an extensive listing of approved terms and definitions used by the NWCG community. It contains terms commonly used by NWCG in the areas of wildland fire and incident management and is not intended to list all terms used by NWCG groups and member agencies. The NWCG has directed that all committee and subgroup product glossaries be contained within the NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire to maintain definition consistency and clarity among documents.

Comments, questions, and recommendations shall be submitted to the appropriate agency program manager assigned to the Data Standards and Terminology Board (DSTB).

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205 (Quick View)

EDG Explorer is a database platform used for managing NWCG Glossary terms. The following table is a quick view of the terms found in EDG. More detailed information such as rules, documentation, and term relationships may be viewed in EDG Explorer.

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Title	Steward	Status	Definition
thin layer	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	Layer of clouds whose ratio of dense sky cover to total sky cover is 1/2 or less.
thin sky cover	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	Sky cover through which higher clouds or the sky can be detected.
third-degree burn	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	A flesh burn in which charring occurs.
third-party case	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	An injury or illness/disease caused by a person or object under circumstances that indicate there may be a legal liability on a party other than the federal or state government.
threat	IFPC Interagency Fire Planning Committee	Approved	An incident likely to cause damage or danger to protected lands.
threat fire	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Any uncontrolled fire near to or heading toward an area under organized fire protection.
throw out	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	Soil pushed over the edge of a fireline by a tractor plow or dozer.
thunderstorm	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	Localized storm characterized by one or more electrical discharge(s).
Thunderstorm/Tornado/High Winds		Approved	An event dealing with response to a severe storm such as thunderstorms, tornado, or high winds.
tie-in	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Act of connecting a control line to another fireline or an intended firebreak.
time delay device	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	A device employed to allow a firesetter the opportunity to leave the scene prior to the ignition of the fire.
time in service	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	With respect to maintenance time records, the time from the moment an aircraft leaves the surface of the earth until it touches at the next point of landing.
time point	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	A point in time during a 24-hour Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) day.
time recording	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Recording all time presented by others. Personnel time recorders record time from the Crew Time Report, SF-261, to the Incident Time Report, OF-288. Equipment time recorders record time from the Emergency Equipment Shift Ticket, OF-297, to the Emergency Equipment Use Invoice, OF-286.
Time Unit	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Functional unit within the Finance/Administration Section responsible for recording personnel time and managing the commissary.
time-temperature curve	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	Graph showing the increase in temperature at a specified point in a fire as a function of time, beginning with ignition and ending with burnout.
timekeeping	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Tracking on-shift time of incident resources. Timekeeping is accomplished on the Crew Time Report, SF-261, or the Emergency Equipment Shift Ticket, OF-297.
Timelag	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	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 4 timelag periods.
tinder	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Burnable organic material (duff, peat, rotten wood, etc.) with a high surface to volume ratio.
tips	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Nozzle tips used to change orifice size of a hose stream.
torch (envelopment)	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Ignition and subsequent envelopment in flames, usually from bottom to top, of a tree or small group of trees.
torch (professional)	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	A professional firesetter-for-hire.
torch (set fire)	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	To set fire to property deliberately and maliciously.
torching	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	The burning of the foliage of a single tree or a small group of trees, from the bottom up.
total fuel	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	All plant material both living and dead that can burn in a worst case situation.
total mobility	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	The capability to move, position, and utilize established forces to meet existing and anticipated fire protection needs nationwide.
total risk	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	Sum of lightning and human-caused risk values.
Total Suspended Particulate Matter	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Particles emitted from a pollution source regardless of size. Federal and state ambient and emission standards exist for TSP.
touchdown pad	IHOPS Interagency Helicopter Operations Subcommittee	Approved	That portion of a heliport or helispot where the helicopter lands.
tour-of-duty	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	The hours of a day (a daily tour-of-duty) and the days of an administrative workweek (a weekly tour-of-duty) that constitutes an employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek.
toxic	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	Relating to a harmful effect by a poisonous substance on the human body by physical contact, ingestion, or inhalation.
toxic substance	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	A chemical or mixture that may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.
tractor	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Archived	A rubber tired or tracked rider-controlled automotive vehicle, used in wildland fire management for pulling a disk or a plow to construct fireline by exposing mineral soil.
tractor plow	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	A steel tracked vehicle with or without a front mounted blade equipped with a plow for exposing mineral soil. Sometimes a tractor plow with a front mounted blade is referred to as a dozer plow.
traffic pattern	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	Traffic flow that is prescribed for aircraft landing at, taxiing on, and taking off from, an airport. Usual components of a traffic pattern are upwind leg, crosswind leg, downwind leg, base leg, and final approach.
trail drop	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	An unbroken line of retardant used for constructing a retardant line.
trailer	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Combustible material, such as rolled rag, blankets and newspapers, or flammable liquid, used to spread fire from one area to others; usually used in conjunction with an incendiary device.
trainee	IPSC Incident and Position Standards Committee	Approved	An individual who has met all required training and position experience for a specified position and is approved by their home unit's certifying official, to initiate a performance based training assignment in order to become qualified in the position.
trainer/coach	IPSC Incident and Position Standards Committee	Approved	A position-qualified individual who provides instruction to a trainee in the classroom, on-the-job, or on an incident. While many of the requirements of the trainer/coach are similar to the evaluator, it is important that the roles of training and evaluation remain separate.
Training & Proficiency		Approved	A scheduled activity that provides instruction to make attendees fit, qualified, or proficient in a particular area. This is a planned event.
Training & Proficiency			A scheduled activity that provides instruction to make attendees fit, qualified, or proficient in a particular area. This is a planned event.
transfer of command	ICSC Incident Command Subcommittee	Approved	The ICS management process in which the on-scene incident commander at a specified time hands off command responsibilities to the incident commander that will be taking over incident command.
transition	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	In the 1978 version of NFDRS, the herbaceous stage when herbaceous fuel moisture is between 120% and 30%.
transition zone	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Area of change between advancing, lateral, and backing vectors.
translational lift	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	Lift that is gained when a helicopter translates from a hover into forward flight; additional lift increases with increasing airspeed and is derived by the rotor system moving into undisturbed air.
transport wind speed	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	A measure of the average rate of the horizontal transport of air within the Mixing Layer. May also be the wind speed at the final height of plume rise. Generally refers to the rate at which emissions will be transported from one area to another.
transportation map	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	Base map of the planning unit showing all roads, trails, heliports, and airfields existing and programmed for construction.
travel time	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Compensable time en route to or from an emergency incident.
travel time map	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	Map showing the time required for the initial attack crew to reach various parts of a protection unit from specified positions.
Treatment			Actions that affect fuel or vegetative conditions, community adaptation, public safety, or public land access through their completion.

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National Wildfire Coordinating Group

PMS 205

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview