NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire (PMS 205)

NWCG Unit Identifier of landowner agency at the point of origin of a fire.

An event dealing with response to mass movement of the earth's surface, including landslide, mudslide, slumping, sinkhole etc.

Change of an atmospheric variable (temperature unless specified otherwise) with height.

Aircraft in which maximum certified gross weight at take-off exceeds 12,500 pounds.

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.

For statistical purposes, a fire burning more than a specified area of land e.g., 300 acres.

In FireFamily Plus, a day with both a weather observation and at least one large (as defined by the user) fire.

The last name of the resource as it appears on a government issued ID. 

Date the water source was last used or visited and confirmed to be viable

Rate or spread and intensity of a fire usually falling somewhere in between advancing and backing with spread lateral to the main direction of fire travel.

The angular distance north or south of the earth's equator, measured in units of decimal degrees along a meridian.

The latitude location of the wildland fire location point specified in decimal degrees.

Latitude in degrees, decimal minutes WGS84 for labeling purposes.

The location coordinate for the latitude value corresponding to the initial reported point of origin specified in decimal degrees.

The latitude location of the point of origin specified in decimal degrees. Point of origin is the location where a competent ignition source came into contact with the material first ignited and sustained combustion occurred.

An event dealing with the agency's law enforcement program. Includes non-fire infrared flights, surveillance, etc.

Line or set of lines made of rope, webbing, or cable and used in helicopter external load operations; usually placed between a swivel or the cargo hook and the load.

The ICS title for an individual who is responsible for supervision of a unit, strike team, resource team, or task force.

A concise statement that outlines what individuals must know in order to be successful for a given assignment. The intent communicates three essential pieces of information:

Task - What is the goal or objective
Purpose - Why it is to be done
End state - How it should look when successfully completed

The art of providing purpose, direction, and motivation to a group of people in order to accomplish a mission and improve the organization. Leaders provide purpose by clearly communicating their intent and describing the desired end state of an assignment to their followers. Leaders provide direction by maintaining standards of performance for their followers. Leaders provide motivation by setting the example for their followers. 

Aircraft with pilot used to make trial runs over the target area to check wind, smoke conditions, topography and to lead airtankers to targets and supervise their drops.

The amount of water seeping through a sample hose (unlined) in a special trough in a given time period.

A system of organizing workers in fire suppression in which each crew member is assigned a specific task such as clearing or digging fireline on a specific section of control line, and when that task is completed, passes other workers in moving to a new assignment. 

Any system that keeps learner information, can launch and communicate with SCOs, and can interpret instructions that tell it which SCO comes next.

A learning management system (LMS) is a computer-based operating system used by training organizations to register, track and monitor activity in the training function. LMSs have evolved from earlier systems to now include course and student monitoring, resource management, assessments, completion rates and more.

A description of the intended outcome of a training class, program, or evolution. The learning objective identifies the condition, the task, and the standard to which the student much achieve.

Reusable learning objects represent an alternative approach to content development. In this approach, content is broken down into chunks. From a pedagogical perspective, each chunk might play a specific role within an instructional design methodology. Such chunks are called learning objects. There is no standard for the size (or granularity) of a learning object. Larger learning objects are typically harder to reuse, and smaller learner objects save less work for those who reuse them. Normally the happy medium has been estimated as between five and fifteen minutes of learning material. The requirements for each chunk are:

Each chunk must be able to communicate with learning systems using a standardized method that does not depend on the system.
What happens within a chunk is the chunk's business.
How a learner moves between chunks is controlled by the learning system.
Each chunk must have a description (metadata tag) that enables designers to search for and find the right chunk for the right job.

A key accompanying a map which shows information needed to interpret that map. Each type of map has information represented in a different way relating to its subject matter. The legend can explain map scales, symbols and color.

Smoke from any authorized use of fire (e.g., locomotive, industrial operations, permitted debris burning).

Describes how strongly a fire investigator holds an opinion or conclusion, includes two levels, Possible and Probable.

Amount of fire prevention and fire suppression supplied; may be expressed several ways (e.g., percent of people or buildings protected, area protected, dollar value of property protected, firefighters per capita, water flow capability).

The vehicle’s license plate number for purposes of identifying equipment.

A physician licensed by a state Board of Medicine to practice medicine or surgery in that state.

The permission granted by a state as a property right to an individual to practice a profession.

Refers to the joint consideration of both the life and physical well-being of individuals.

Any of the processes that lead to upward vertical motion in the atmosphere. These processes may include low level convergence, heating or thermal convection, orographic lifting over the mountains, and frontal lifting.

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 1 hour or less. These fuels readily ignite and are rapidly consumed by fire when dry.

Light duty mainly involves office-type work with occasional field activity characterized by light physical exertion requiring basic good health.  Individuals almost always can govern the extent and pace of their physical activity.  Essential functions include, but are not limited to: climbing stairs, standing, operating a vehicle, and long hours of work, as well as some bending, stooping, or light lifting.

Wind speed less than 7 mph (6 knots) measured at 20 feet above ground. At eye level, light winds are less than 3 mph (3 knots).

Common tools used to ignite cigarettes, cigars, campfires and other items.

Indicates if the aviation obstacle is lighted.

A number, on a scale of 1 to 6, which reflects frequency and character of cloud-to-ground lightning (forecasted or observed). The scale for 1 to 5 is exponential, based on powers of 2 (i.e., LAL 3 indicates twice the lightning of LAL 2). LAL 6 is a special category for dry lightning and is closely equivalent to LAL 3 in strike frequency. 

Wildfire caused directly or indirectly by lightning.

Numerical rating of the potential occurrence of lightning-caused fires.

A number related to the expected number of cloud-to-ground lightning strokes to which a protection unit is expected to be exposed during the rating period. The LR value used in the occurrence index includes an adjustment for lightning activity experienced during the previous day to account for possible holdover fires. 

Factor derived from local thunderstorm and lightning-caused fire records that adjusts predictions of the basic lightning fire occurrence model to local experience, accounting for factors not addressed directly by the model (e.g., susceptibility of local fuels to ignition by lightning, fuel continuity, topography, regional characteristics of thunderstorms). 

Electronic sensor used to record the number of lightning strokes within a predetermined range over a specified period of time.

Ash and other materials found on other remains at a fire scene which have a tendency to settle on top of the other objects.