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.

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.

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".

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Angle of point symbol displayed in mapping application

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.

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.

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.

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.

An area considered to have air quality as good as, or better than, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) as defined in the Clean Air Act. An area may be in attainment for one or more pollutants but be in nonattainment for one or more other pollutants. 

An organization, office, or individual responsible for enforcing the requirements of a code or standard, or for approving equipment, materials, an installation, or a procedure.

Passengers may be transported in government aircraft only if they meet definition of an Official or an Unofficial Passenger.

The resource can be used to fill a request. Resources on preposition incidents qualify as available.

A flame generating device (e.g., a fount containing diesel oil or kerosene and a wick, or a backpack pump serving a flame-jet).

That portion of the fire with slower rates of fire spread and lower intensity normally moving into the wind and/or down slope.

A collapsible bucket slung below a helicopter. Used to dip water from a variety of sources for fire suppression.

A detailed prescription for treating a specified burning block with fire.

The most common type of hose attached and stored on wildland engine booster reels. The hose is made of neoprene and does not appreciably collapse when stored empty.

The temperature and relative humidity of the boundary layer.

A fire edge that crosses a control line or natural barrier intended to confine the fire.

The increase in strength of a fire management organization.

The accelerated spreading of a fire with time.

A general alert from an NWCG committee to the wildland fire community regarding the release of subject-specific information such as technical information, equipment updates, accident reports, etc. Depending on the origin and/or the subject content, a green hash-marked bordered stationary may be associated with this type of alert.

A qualitative assessment of the heat pulse directed toward the ground during a fire. Burn severity relates to soil heating, large fuel and duff consumption, consumption of the litter and organic layer beneath trees and isolated shrubs, and mortality of buried plant parts. 

The post-fire activities prescribed and implemented to rehabilitate and restore fire damaged lands.

A relative number related to the contribution that fire behavior makes to the amount or effort needed to contain a fire in a specified fuel type. Doubling the burning index indicates that twice the effort will be required to contain a fire in that fuel type as was previously required, providing all other parameters are held constant. 

A device used to determine the burning index for different combinations of burning index factors.