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 |
---|---|---|---|
abandoned/unattended | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | |
ABCD Miscellaneous | DMC Data Management Committee, IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | 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. |
abort | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | To jettison a load of water or retardant from an aircraft, or terminate a preplanned aircraft maneuver. |
abort area | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | 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. |
Above Ground Level | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | Term frequently used in aviation operations, usually in connection with a stated altitude. |
absolute humidity | FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee | Approved | 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. |
absorption | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | Act of soaking up and retaining a gas in liquid or in a solid; also retention of radiant energy. |
accelerant | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | Material (usually a flammable liquid) used to initiate or increase the spread of a fire. |
accelerant misuse | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | |
acceptable fire risk | FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee | Approved | The potential fire loss a community is willing to accept rather than provide resources to reduce such losses. |
accessibility burn | FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee | Approved | The burning of understory prior to the sale of forest products to improve the efficiency of timber marking and harvesting. |
accident (event) | NCSC National Coordination System Committee | Approved | 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. |
accounting code | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | Agency-specific accounting data. Each agency assigns a specific accounting code to an incident. |
accrual reports | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | Cost reports utilized for financial obligation purposes. |
accumulated debris | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | |
action plan | NIMSIC National Incident Management System Integration Committee | Archived | Any tactical plan developed by any element of ICS in support of the incident action plan. |
active crown fire | IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee, FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee | Approved | 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. |
active fire | IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee | Approved | Any fire that has not been called "out". |
active resources | IBC Incident Business Committee | Archived | Resources checked in and assigned work tasks on an incident. |
activity (fire cause) | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | The thing that a person is doing when a wildland fire ignition occurs. |
activity fuels | FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee | Approved | Fuels resulting from, or altered by, forestry practices such as timber harvest or thinning, as opposed to naturally created fuels. |
activity group | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | Further refines wildfire cause supporting data, providing information for prevention programs for targeted messaging. |
activity name | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | Common name of activity |
activity name (aviation) | GSC Geospatial Subcommittee | Approved | Common name of the aviation activity. |
activity type | FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee | Approved | Type of activity or event |
activity type (aviation) | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee, GSC Geospatial Subcommittee | Approved | Type of aviation activity or event |
actual completion date | FMC Fuels Management Committee | Approved | Date when treatment was physically completed |
Actual Time En Route | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | Term used in flight planning/following to document actual time spent flying between points. |
Actual Time of Arrival | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | Term used in flight planning/following to document time of arrival at a point. |
Actual Time of Departure | NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee | Approved | Term used in flight planning/following to document time of departure from a point. |
adapter | ETC Equipment Technology Committee | Approved | A device for connecting hoses of the same size with non-matching hose threads, or connecting a threaded coupling to a quick-connect coupling. |
adiabatic process | FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee | Approved | 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. |
adjective rating | FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee | Approved | A public information description of the relative severity of the current fire danger situation. |
Administrative Payment Team | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | A team that supports incident agencies by processing payments for resources. Resources may include emergency equipment, casuals, local vendors for supplies, etc. |
Administrative Representative | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | Individual responsible for incident agency business management functions, such as personnel, procurement, fiscal, etc. |
administrative workweek | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | Period of seven consecutive calendar days designated in advance by the head of a department (5 U.S.C. 6101(a)). |
Administratively Determined | IBC Incident Business Committee | Approved | A person hired and compensated under the Pay Plan for Emergency Workers. |
admission | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | Approved | Oral or written statement tending to link its maker to involvement in a particular crime. |
adolescent (13-17) | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | |
adult (18+) | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | |
Advanced Life Support | RMC Risk Management Committee | Approved | Advanced life support skills performed by an EMS practitioner or service, e.g. intravenous fluids and drug administration. |
advancing a line | IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee | Approved | Moving a hose lay toward a specified area from the point where the hose-carrying apparatus has stopped. |
advancing fire | WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee | Approved | That portion of the fire with rapid fire spread with higher intensity which is normally burning with the wind and/or up slope. |
advancing front combustion stage | FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee | Approved | The period of combustion when a fire is spreading, usually accompanied by flaming combustion that releases heat to sustain the convection column. |
advection | FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee | Approved | 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. |
Advisory | RMC Risk Management Committee | Approved | 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. |
Adze Hoe | ETC Equipment Technology Committee | Approved | A fire-trenching or digging tool having a sharp, tempered blade, which is useful for heavy grubbing, trenching, and light cutting. |
aerial detection | IASS Interagency Aerial Supervision Subcommittee | Approved | A system for, or the act of discovering, locating, and reporting fires from aircraft. |
aerial fireworks | CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee | In Development | Explode or create an aerial flash. The hot remains of an aerial firework may land in flammable vegetation and ignite a fire. |
aerial fuels | FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee | Approved | 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. |
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