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)

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Title	Steward	Status	Definition
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.
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.
accounting code	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Agency-specific accounting data. Each agency assigns a specific accounting code to an incident.
accuracy descriptor (Point of Origin) (POO)		Approved	Description of the methods used to determine the certainty and precision of the fire location at the point of origin.
active fire	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Any fire that has not been called "out".
activity (fire cause)	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	Approved	The thing that a person is doing when a wildland fire ignition occurs.
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 type	FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee	Approved	Type of activity or event
actual completion date	FMC Fuels Management Committee	Approved	Date when treatment was physically completed
angle	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	Angle of point symbol displayed in mapping application
apparatus identifier	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	The alphanumeric characters assigned to an apparatus.
apparatus number	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Archived	The external alphanumeric value painted on the side of the equipment.
aspect code (Point of Origin) (POO)		Approved	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.
at incident	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Proposed New	The resource is committed and at the assigned incident.
authority having jurisdiction	NIMSIC National Incident Management System Integration Committee	Approved	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.
available		Proposed New	The resource can be used to fill a request. Resources on preposition incidents qualify as available.
backing fire	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee, WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	That portion of the fire with slower rates of fire spread and lower intensity normally moving into the wind and/or down slope.
center location	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	The city and state pairing for the dispatch center location
chain of command	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee, NIMSIC National Incident Management System Integration Committee	Approved	The orderly line of authority within the rank of incident management organizations.
complex identifier	FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee	Approved	The Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the complex.
complex name	FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee	Approved	The name of the complex that the fire is assigned.
contained	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	The status of a wildfire suppression action signifying that a control line has been completed around the fire, and any associated spot fires, which can reasonably be expected to stop the fire's spread.
containment (wildfire)	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The status of a wildfire suppression action signifying that a control line has been completed around the fire, and any associated spot fires, which can reasonably be expected to stop the fire's spread.
controlled	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The completion of control line around a fire, any spot fires therefrom, and any interior islands to be saved; burned out any unburned area adjacent to the fire side of the control lines; and cool down all hotspots that are immediate threats to the control line, until the lines can reasonably be expected to hold under the foreseeable conditions.
cost	IBC Incident Business Committee	Grandfathered	The dollar amount associated with an incident.
country	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	A nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory.
country code	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	Short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas.
country subdivision	DMC Data Management Committee	Proposed New	Political subdivisions that fall within a country
county code (Point of Origin) (POO)		Approved	The County Code identifying the county or equivalent entity at point of origin designated at the time of collection. Point of origin is the location where a competent ignition source came into contact with the material first ignited and sustained combustion occurred.
create date	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	Date the feature was created.
create name (feature class)	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	Name of the person creating the feature.
created by system	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	System that created the data record.
created on date time	DMC Data Management Committee	Grandfathered	Date and time the event record was created
date	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	A particular day of a calendar year.
date current (geospatial data)	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	The last edit, update, of this GIS record.
date-time	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	The combination of date and time elements.
datum (Point of Origin) (POO)		Approved	The datum associated with the coordinates that identify the point of origin. Point of origin is the location where a competent ignition source came into contact with the material first ignited and sustained combustion occurred.
delete this	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	An attribute flag to tell editors to remove a feature added in error.
demob en route		Proposed New	The resource is no longer assigned to an incident and travel has started, but the resource has not yet arrived home.
discovery time	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Elapsed time from start of fire (known or estimated) until the time of the first discovery that results directly in fire suppression action.
dispatch center	IBC Incident Business Committee, NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	An organization from which resources are ordered, mobilized or assigned to an incident and/or demobilized. The center may process requests, coordinate response, or track resources and information under the delegation of its benefiting agency(s).
dispatch center area	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	Name of the Dispatch Area or Zone
dispatch center location	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	The city and state of the dispatch center
dispatch center name	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	Name of the dispatch center
dispatch center unit identifier	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	Unit Identifier for the dispatch center
dispatch tier	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	Levels of the wildland fire dispatch and coordination system
Documentation Unit	NIMSIC National Incident Management System Integration Committee	Approved	Documentation Unit staff maintain incident files and data for legal, analytical, and historical purposes, including a complete record of the major steps taken to resolve the incident. They also provide duplication services for incident personnel; compile, reproduce, and distribute the IAP; and maintain the files and records that are developed as part of the IAP and planning function.
edit name (feature class)	GSC Geospatial Subcommittee	Approved	Name of the person editing the feature.
elapsed time	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	The total time taken to complete any step(s) in fire suppression.

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National Wildfire Coordinating Group

PMS 205

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview