NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

The governmental entity having overall land and resource management responsibility for a specific geographical area as provided by law.

Code used in interagency wildland fire to uniquely identify the governmental entity having overall land and resource management responsibility for a specific geographical area as provided by law.

An estimate (0-800) of the amount of precipitation (in 100ths of inches) needed to bring the top 8 inches of soil back to saturation. A value of 0 is complete saturation of the soil, a value of 800 means 8.00 inches of precipitation would be needed for saturation. In the 1988 version of NFDRS, outputs of KBDI are used to adjust live and dead fuel loadings. 

As applied to incident resources, a class or group of items or people of the same nature or character or classified together because they have traits in common. Category sometimes referred to as subset of kind.

Lowest temperature at which sustained combustion can be initiated for a specified substance.

To reduce the flame or heat on the more vigorously burning parts of a fire edge.

Nautical miles per hour, equal to 1.15 mph.

Fuels which provide vertical continuity between strata, thereby allowing fire to carry from surface fuels into the crowns of trees or shrubs with relative ease. They help initiate and assure the continuation of crowning.

Fire started as a result of land occupancy for agricultural purposes, industrial establishment, construction, maintenance and use of rights-of-way, and residences, except equipment use and smoking.

A set of decisions that establish management direction for land within an administrative area; an assimilation of land-use-plan-level decisions developed through the planning process regardless of the scale at which the decisions were developed.

A document prepared with public participation and approved by an agency administrator that provides general guidance and direction for land and resource management activities for an administrative area. The L/RMP identifies the need for fire’s role in a particular area and for a specific benefit. The objectives in the L/RMP provide the basis for the development of fire management objectives and the fire management program in the designated area.

The person or entity that owns the land or has the authority to convey title to others.

Specific classification of landownership within landowner kinds.

Broadest classification of landownership.

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. 

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 center point of the treatment or activity indicated using the angular distance north of the earth's equator.
• Decimal degrees (e.g. 43.618881)
• Datum of NAD83

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.

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 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.

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.

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.