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
coupling	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Device that connects the ends of adjacent hoses or other components of hose.
course	NIAC National Interagency Aviation Committee	Approved	In aviation, the intended direction of horizontal flight.
cover	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The area on the ground covered by the combined aerial parts of plants expressed as a percent of the total area.
cover type	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The designation of a vegetation complex described by dominant species, age, and form.
coverage level	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Recommended amount of aerially applied retardant keyed to the NFDRS fuel models and/or fire behavior models. Coverage level 2 represents 2 gallons of retardant per hundred square feet. Levels range from 1 to 6 for most fuel models. A coverage level of greater than 6 is for heavy fuels. The levels can be adjusted for fire behavior.
coyote tactics	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	A progressive line construction duty involving self-sufficient crews which build fire line until the end of the operational period, remain at or near the point while off duty, and begin building fireline the next operational period where they left off.
crazing	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	Fine cracking of glass, usually from heat of fire.
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	In Development
created on date time	DMC Data Management Committee	Grandfathered	Date and time the event record was created
creeping fire	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Fire burning with a low flame and spreading slowly.
crew	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	An organized group of firefighters under the leadership of a crew boss or other designated official.
crew shuttle	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Transportation of fireline personnel to and/or from assigned fireline locations.
crew transport	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Any vehicle capable of transporting a specified number of personnel in a specified manner.
crisis communication coaches	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	Agency employees who have actual experience dealing with a critical incident and are qualified as incident information officers.
criteria pollutants	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Pollutants deemed most harmful to public health and welfare and that can be monitored effectively. They include carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen oxides (Nox), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM) of aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 micrometers (PM10) and particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5).
critical burnout time	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	Total time a fuel can burn and continue to feed energy to the base of a forward-traveling convection column.
critical incident	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	A fatality or other event that can have serious long-term adverse effects on the agency, its employees and their families, or the community.
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	The process in which teams of professional and peer counselors provide emotional and psychological support to incident personnel who are or have been involved in a critical (highly stressful) incident.
critical incident stress management (event)	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	An event dealing with a critical incident event. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)/Peer Support is the selection and implementation of the most appropriate crisis intervention tactics to best respond to the needs of the situation. CISM has multiple components other than responding after a critical incident occurs. These components can be used before, during, and after a crisis. They include a wide range of various activities, including PreIncident Education (PIE), which provides for resiliency, planning and preparedness, acute crisis management, and post-incident follow up.
Critical Incident Stress Managment (process)	RMC Risk Management Committee	Approved	An adaptive short-term helping process that focuses solely on an immediate and identifiable problem to enable the individual(s) affected to return to their daily routine(s) more quickly and with a lessened likelihood of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
cross shot	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	Intersecting lines of sight from two points to the same object, frequently used to determine location of a fire from lookouts.
crown consumption	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Combustion of the twigs, and needles or leaves of a tree during a fire.
crown cover	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The ground area covered by the crown of a tree as delimited by the vertical projection of its outermost perimeter.
crown fire	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	A fire that advances from top to top of trees or shrubs more or less independent of a surface fire. Crown fires are sometimes classed as running or dependent to distinguish the degree of independence from the surface fire.
Crown Fraction Burned	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee, FENC Fire Environment Committee	Approved	A theoretical concept that is used to model and classify crown fire. It may be observable after the fact in burn severity assessments.
crown out	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	A fire that rises from ground into the tree crowns and advances from tree top to tree top. To intermittently ignite tree crowns as a surface fire advances.
crown ratio	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	The ratio of live crown to tree height.
crown scorch	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	Browning of needles or leaves in the crown of a tree or shrub caused by heating to lethal temperature during a fire. Crown scorch may not be apparent for several weeks after the fire.
crown scorch height	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	The height above the surface of the ground to which a tree canopy is scorched.
crowning potential	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	A probability that a crown fire may start, calculated from inputs of foliage moisture content and height of the lowest part of the tree crowns above the surface.
cumulonimbus	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	The ultimate growth of a cumulus cloud into an anvil-shaped cloud with considerable vertical development, usually with fibrous ice crystal tops, and usually accompanied by lightning, thunder, hail, and strong winds.
cumulus	FWS Fire Weather Subcommittee	Approved	A principal low cloud type in the form of individual cauliflower-like cells of sharp non-fibrous outline and less vertical development than cumulonimbus.
cup trench	IOSC Incident Operations Subcommittee	Approved	A fireline trench on the downhill side of fire burning on steep slopes that is supposed to be built deep enough to catch rolling firebrands that could otherwise start fire below the fireline. A high berm on the outermost downhill side of the trench helps the cup trench catch material.
curb weight	ETC Equipment Technology Committee	Approved	Weight of a truck empty (without payload and driver) but ready to drive, including a full fuel tank, cooling system, crankcase, tools, spare wheel, and all other equipment specified as standard.
cured	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	In the 1978 version of NFDRS, the herbaceous stage when herbaceous fuel moisture falls to 30% or less.
daily activity level	FDSC Fire Danger Subcommittee	Approved	In fire danger rating, a subjective estimate of the degree of activity of a potential human-caused fire source relative to that which is normally experienced. Five activity levels are defined: none, low, normal, high, and extreme.
daily rate	IBC Incident Business Committee	Approved	Paid on a calendar day basis (0001-2400).
damage differential	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	The comparative differences of damage to objects resulting from the fire’s passage.
damage differential indicators	WFISC Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee	Approved	The amount of fire related destruction to combustible objects determined by comparing opposing sides of an object.
date	DMC Data Management Committee	Approved	A particular day of a calendar year.
date current	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.
Dates
dead fuels	FBSC Fire Behavior Subcommittee	Approved	Fuels with no living tissue in which moisture content is governed almost entirely by absorption or evaporation of atmospheric moisture (relative humidity and precipitation).
debris / product fire (event)	NCSC National Coordination System Committee	Approved	An event dealing with a fire spreading from any fire originally ignited to clear land or burn rubbish, garbage, crop stubble, or meadows (excluding incendiary fires).
debris burning fire (prescribed)	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	In prescribed fire terminology, a fire used to dispose of scattered, piled, or windrowed dead woody fuel, generally in the absence of a merchantable overstory. Its purpose is to reduce unsightly fuel concentrations, or consume unwanted natural fuels to facilitate subsequent resource management or land use actions on the area.
debris burning fire (suppression)	FUSC Fire Use Subcommittee	Approved	In fire suppression terminology, a fire spreading from any fire originally ignited to clear land or burn rubbish, garbage, crop stubble, or meadows (excluding incendiary fires).
deck	IHOPS Interagency Helicopter Operations Subcommittee	Approved	The helibase operational area that includes the touchdown pad, safety circle, hover lanes, and external cargo transport area.

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National Wildfire Coordinating Group

PMS 205

NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire, PMS 205

Overview