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.

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

Cost reports utilized for financial obligation purposes.

Description of the methods used to determine the certainty and precision of the fire location at the point of origin.

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.

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 physically completed

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

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

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

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.

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

An administrative division of a government with a specific function, or a non-governmental organization (e.g., private contractor, business, etc.) that offers a particular kind of assistance. A federal, Tribal, state or local agency that has direct fire management or land management responsibilities or that has programs and activities that support fire management activities.

The official position responsible for the management of a geographic unit or functional area. The managing officer of an agency, division thereof, or jurisdiction having statutory responsibility for incident mitigation and management. Examples: Federal Line Officer, State Forest Officer/Delegate or Fire Manager, Tribal Chairperson, Fire Chief, Police Chief, Sheriff, Mayor or County Representative.

The process whereby the employing agency or contractor documents that the individual is fully qualified to perform duties and responsibilities for a specified position.

Costs incurred by an agency that address the sole concern of only the agency or are not incurred with mutual benefit. Agency specific costs are not shared.

The deployment of fixed-wing or rotary aircraft on a wildland fire, to drop retardant or extinguishing agents, shuttle and deploy crews and supplies, or perform aerial reconnaissance of the overall fire situation.

Mathematical or quantitative representation or simulation of air quality processes; e.g., emission models, receptor models, or air quality dispersion models.

Fixed-wing aircraft certified by FAA as being capable of transport and delivery of fire retardant solutions.

A method used to distribute various types of general or time-sensitive information from an NWCG committee to the wildland fire community. Information may include bulletins, advisories, or safety warnings, each with an associated color hash-marked bordered stationary.

A sighting device used by lookouts to determine the horizontal bearing and sometimes the vertical angle of a fire from a lookout.

A threat or an incident, natural or manmade, that warrants action to protect life, property, the environment, and public health or safety, and to minimize disruptions of government, social, or economic activities. It includes natural disasters, cyber incidents, industrial accidents, pandemics, acts of terrorism, sabotage, and destructive criminal activity targeting critical infrastructure. This also includes the effects climate change has on the threats and hazards.

Resources dispatched to an incident, that have not yet checked in.

The barometric pressure reading used to adjust a pressure altimeter for variations in existing atmospheric pressure or to the standard altimeter setting (29.92) inches.

According to the American Meteorological Society, the general name for instruments designed to measure total wind speed.

Angle of point symbol displayed in mapping application

Annual review by an employing agency of an individual's position qualifications and documentation certifying that the individual is fully qualified to perform duties and responsibilities for a specified position. Annual certification is based on established performance standards and agency specific requirements. 

A plant that lives for one growing season, starting from a seed each year.

The alphanumeric characters assigned to an apparatus.

The external alphanumeric value painted on the side of the equipment.

Arduous duty field work requires above-average endurance and superior conditioning.  Duties may include an occasional demand for extraordinarily strenuous activity in emergency situations under adverse environmental conditions over extended periods. The pace of work typically is set by the emergency condition.  Essential functions include, but are not limited to: running, walking or hiking, climbing, jumping, twisting, bending, lifting more than 50 pounds, and carrying 45 pounds or more for extended periods over difficult terrain. 

Ignition of several individual fires throughout an area, either simultaneously or in rapid succession, and so spaced that they add to and influence the main body of the fire to produce a hot, fast-spreading fire condition.

Cardinal direction toward which a slope faces.

A code used to describe the direction toward which the predominant slope faces at the point of origin of the fire (including ridgetops and/or flat ground). Point of origin is the location where a competent ignition source came into contact with the material first ignited and sustained combustion occurred.

Resources checked in and assigned work tasks on an incident.

An agency or organization providing personnel, services, or other resources to the agency with direct responsibility for incident management.

The resource is committed and at the assigned incident.

According to the American Meteorological Society, a departure from the usual decrease or increase with altitude of the value of an atmospheric property; also, the layer through which this departure occurs (the "inversion layer"), or the lowest altitude at which the departure is found ("the base of the inversion"). In fire management usage, nearly always refers to an increase in temperature with increasing height.

According to the American Meteorological Society, the ability of the atmosphere at rest to become turbulent or laminar due to the effects of buoyancy. Air tending to become or remain turbulent is said to be statically unstable; one tending to become or remain laminar is statically stable; and one on the borderline between the two (which might remain laminar or turbulent depending on its history) is statically neutral.

The starting date, hour, and minute of the first suppression work on a fire.