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
fire	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Rapid oxidation, usually with the evolution of heat and light; heat fuel, oxygen and interaction of the three.
Fire Adapted Community	WUIMC Wildland Urban Interface Mitigation Committee	Approved	A community that recognizes its risk and takes action before, during and after a fire in order for their community to be more resilient to wildfire. Fire adapted community members are informed and prepared, collaboratively planning and taking action to better live with wildland fire.
fire agency	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Official group or organization compelled and authorized under statutes or law to control fires within a designated area or upon designated lands.
fire behavior	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	The manner in which a fire reacts to the influences of fuel, weather, and topography.
fire behavior context	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	The fuels, weather and topographical conditions of a specific fire scene or area of the fire scene at the time of fire passage.
fire behavior forecast	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	Prediction of probable fire behavior, usually prepared by a fire behavior analyst, in support of fire suppression or prescribed burning operations.
fire behavior prediction model	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	A set of mathematical equations that can be used to predict certain aspects of fire behavior when provided with an assessment of fuel and environmental conditions.
fire behavior prediction system	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	A system that uses a set of mathematical equations to predict certain aspects of fire behavior in wildland fuels when provided with data on fuel and environmental conditions.
fire benefits	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Fire effects with positive monetary, social, or emotional value or that contribute, through changes in the resource base, to the attainment of organizational goals.
fire bug	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Arsonist, especially a repetitive firesetter.
fire business	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	The characterization of fire occurrence in an area, described in terms of total number of fires and acres per year; and number of fires by time, size, cause, fire-day, large fire-day, and multiple fire-day.
fire business thresholds	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	Values of one or more fire weather/fire danger indexes that have been statistically related to occurrence of fires (fire business). Generally the threshold is a value, or range of values where historical fire activity has significantly increased or decreased.
fire cache	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	A supply of fire tools and equipment assembled in planned quantities or standard units at a strategic point for exclusive use in fire suppression.
fire cause	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Agency or circumstance which started a fire or set the stage for its occurrence; source of a fire's ignition. For statistical purposes fires are grouped into broad cause classes. The nine general causes used in the U.S. are lightning, campfire, smoking, debris burning, incendiary, machine use (equipment), railroad, children, and miscellaneous.
Fire Cause	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	Approved
fire cause class	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Any class into which wildland fires are grouped according to their origin.
fire climate	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	Composite pattern of weather elements over time that affect fire behavior in a given region.
fire climax	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Plant community maintained by periodic fires.
Fire Code
fire crew	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	General term for two or more firefighters organized to work as a unit.
fire crew work formation	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Standard crew arrangement used for fireline construction in direct or indirect attack; consists of line locator, line cutters, rakers, torch operators, and mop up crew.
fire danger	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	Sum of constant danger and variable danger factors affecting the inception, spread, and resistance to control, and subsequent fire damage; often expressed as an index.
fire danger continuum	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	The range of possible values for a fire danger index or component, given a set of NFDRS parameters and weather input.
fire danger index	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A relative number indicating the severity of wildland fire danger as determined from burning conditions and other variable factors of fire danger.
fire danger rating	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A fire management system that integrates the effects of selected fire danger factors into one or more qualitative or numerical indices of current protection needs.
fire danger rating area	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A geographic area of relatively homogenous climate, fuels and topography, tens of thousands of acres in size, within which the fire danger can be assumed to be uniform. The basic on-the-ground unit for which unique fire management decisions are made based on fire danger ratings. Weather is represented by one or more NFDRS weather stations.
Fire Danger Rating Operating Plan	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A guide to collection, communication, and application of fire danger ratings at the local level.
Fire Danger Rating Pocket Card for Firefighter Safety	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A communication aid designed to help firefighters develop an awareness of the local fire situation by providing a visual reference to fire danger rating.
Fire Danger Rating System	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	The complete program necessary to produce and apply fire danger ratings, including data collection, data processing, fire danger modeling, communications, and data storage.
fire death	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	Fire casualty which is fatal or becomes fatal within one year of the fire.
fire dependent	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Plants and vegetation communities which have evolved adaptations such as a reliance on fire as a disturbance agent, protection as a species against the effects of wildland fire, or even a strengthening or enhancement by it.
fire detection	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Act or system of discovering and locating fires.
fire diagram	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	A near scale depiction of the scene based on measurements and data.
fire discovery	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	The act of determining that a fire exists; does not include determining its location.
fire discovery date time	FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee	Approved	The date the fire was confirmed to exist or was reported as discovered
fire discovery time	FRSC Fire Reporting Subcommittee	Approved	The time of day the fire was confirmed to exist or was reported as discovered.
fire district	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	A rural or suburban fire organization, usually tax supported, that maintains fire companies and apparatus.
fire duty	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	Actual physical engagement in firefighting service as distinguished from staff work at headquarters or maintenance division; work at an individual fire done by an individual firefighter or by a company.
fire ecology	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The study of the effects of fire on living organisms and their environment.
fire edge	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The boundary of a fire at a given moment.
fire education	CEPC Communication, Education, and Prevention Committee	Approved	Activities to change behaviors and attitudes about fire ecology, wildland fire and the role of fire in natural resource management. Defines the purposes for actions that provide information about and improve understanding of wildland fire.
fire effects	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The physical, biological, and ecological impacts of fire on the environment.
fire environment	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee, FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	The surrounding conditions, influences, and modifying forces of topography, fuel, and weather that determine fire behavior.
fire frequency	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee, FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A general term referring to the recurrence of fire in a given area over time.
fire front	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	The part of a fire within which continuous flaming combustion is taking place. Unless otherwise specified, the fire front is assumed to be the leading edge of the fire perimeter. In ground fires, the fire front may be mainly smoldering combustion.
fire guard	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Archived	A general term for a firefighter, lookout, patrol, prevention guard, or other person directly employed for prevention and/or detection and suppression of fires.
fire hazard	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A fuel complex, defined by volume, type condition, arrangement, and location, that determines the degree of ease of ignition and of resistance to control.
fire hazard index	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	A numerical rating for specific fuel types, indicating the relative probability of fires starting and spreading, and the probable degree of resistance to control; similar to burning index, but without effects of wind speed.
fire hazardous areas	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	Those wildland areas where the combination of vegetation, topography, weather, and the threat of fire to life and property create difficult and dangerous problems.
fire history	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	A general term referring to the historic fire occurrence of a given geographic area.

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National Wildfire Coordinating Group

PMS 205

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview