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)

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
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.
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.
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.
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	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee, IOSC Incident Operations 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		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	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	Approved	Type of 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.
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 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.
aerial ignition	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee, NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	Ignition of fuels by dropping incendiary devices or materials from aircraft.
Aerial Ignition Device	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee, ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Inclusive term applied to equipment designed to ignite wildland fuels from an aircraft.
aerial reconnaissance	IASS Interagency Aerial Supervision Subcommittee	Approved	Use of aircraft for detecting and observing fire behavior, values-at-risk, suppression activity, and other critical factors to facilitate command decisions on strategy and tactics needed for fire suppression.
aerial torch	IHOPS Interagency Helicopter Operations Subcommittee	Approved	An ignition device suspended under a helicopter, capable of dispensing ignited fuel to the ground for assistance in burning out or backfiring.
affidavit	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	Approved	A statement of declaration in writing and affirmed before an official with authority to administer an oath; a statement of declaration alleging fact to support the issuance of a search or arrest warrant.
After Action Review	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	A structured review or de-brief process of an event, focused on performance standards, that enables participants to discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses. After action reviews, informal or formal, follow the same general format, involve the exchange of ideas and observations, and focus on improving performance.
age category	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	In Development	A way to group people based on their chronological age and their position in the life cycle as it relates to the age demographic. This information provides valuable insight to Communication, Education, and Prevention personnel in developing products to reach and educate on wildland fire prevention.
Agency			Above Region in hierarchy, Relates to Department
agency	NIMSIC National Incident Management System Integration Committee	Archived	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.

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National Wildfire Coordinating Group

PMS 205

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview