A Career Fire
Fighter was Killed and a Career Captain was Severely Injured During a
Wildland/Urban Interface Operation - California
GLOSSARY OF
TERMS*
Crown Closure: Is the percentage of ground covered
by a vertical projection of the outermost perimeter of the crowns in a
stand. Only the crowns that form part of the upper canopy level (dominant/co-dominant
stratum) are used to determine closure in uneven-aged or stands with multiple
canopy layers.
Crown Fire: 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.
Firing Out: Act of lighting fire with a torch, fusee,
etc., to accomplish burning out or backfiring.
Fuel Model: Simulated fuel complex for which all fuel
descriptors required for the solution of a mathematical rate-of-spread
model have been specified.
Green Sheet: An informational summary report issued
by CDF following a serious accident or fatality to assist with accident
prevention and training by providing a brief narrative of the conditions
and sequence of events leading to a serious accident. It is subject to
revision as more findings are discovered. It is usually completed within
72 hours of the accident, and is therefore necessarily preliminary in
nature and subject to potential inaccuracies.
Hotshot Crew: Intensively trained fire crew used primarily
in hand line construction. (Type 1)
Resources: (1) Personnel, equipment, services and supplies
available, or potentially available, for assignment to incidents. Personnel
and equipment are described by kind and type, e.g., ground, water, air,
etc., and may be used in tactical, support or overhead capacities at an
incident. (2) The natural resources of an area, such as timber, grass,
watershed values, recreation values, and wildlife habitat.
Spot Fires: Fire ignited outside the perimeter of the
main fire by a firebrand.
Spotting: Behavior of a fire producing sparks or embers
that are carried by the wind and which start new fires beyond the zone
of direct ignition by the main fire.
Strike Team: Specified combinations of the same kind
and type of resources, with common communications, and a leader.
Structural Triage: Process of inspecting and classifying
structures according to their defensibility/indefensibility based on their
situation, their construction, and the immediately adjacent fuels.
Task Force: Any combination of single resources assembled
for a particular tactical need, with common communications and a leader.
A Task Force may be pre-established and sent to an incident, or formed
at an incident.
Type: Refers to resource capability. A Type 1 resource
provides a greater overall capability due to power, size, capacity, etc.,
than would be found in a Type 2 resource. Resource typing provides managers
with additional information in selecting the best resource for the task.
Unified Command: In ICS, unified command is a unified
team effort which allows all agencies with jurisdictional responsibility
for the incident, either geographical or functional, to manage an incident
by establishing a common set of incident objectives and strategies. This
is accomplished without losing or abdicating authority, responsibility,
or accountability.
*A complete glossary of terms can be found in the
National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Fireline Handbook5 and IFSTA’s
Wildland fire fighting for structural firefighters, 4th ed.2
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