Aerial Fuels: All live and dead vegetation in the forest canopy or above surface fuels, including tree branches, twigs and cones, snags, moss, and high brush.

Aerial Ignition: Ignition of fuels by dropping incendiary devices or materials from aircraft.

Air Tanker: A fixed-wing aircraft equipped to drop fire retardants or suppressants.

Agency: Any federal, state, or county government organization participating with jurisdictional responsibilities.

Anchor Point: An advantageous location, usually a barrier to fire spread, from which to start building a fire line. An anchor point is used to reduce the chance of firefighters being flanked by fire.

Arson Fire: A wildfire willfully ignited by anyone to burn, or spread to, vegetation or property without consent of the owner or his/her agent.

Aspect: Direction toward which a slope faces.

Attack a Fire: Limit the spread of fire by any appropriate means.

Backfire: A fire set along the inner edge of a fire line to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire and/or change the direction of force of the fire’s convection column.

Backfiring: A tactic associated with indirect attack, intentionally setting fire to fuels inside the control line. Most often to contain a rapidly spreading fire. Backfiring provides a wide defense perimeter, and may be further employed to change the force of the convection column. Backfiring is a tactic which makes possible a strategy of locating control lines at places where the fire can be fought on the firefighter’s terms. Except for rare circumstances meeting specified criteria, backfiring is executed on a command decision made through line channels of authority. See Burning out for difference.

Backing Fire: Fire spreading or ignited to spread into the wind and/or down slope.

Backpack Pump: A portable sprayer with hand-pump, fed from a liquid-filled container fitted with straps, used mainly in fire and pest control. (See also Bladder Bag.)

Bambi Bucket: A collapsible bucket slung below a helicopter. Used to dip water from a variety of sources for fire suppression.

Behave: A system of interactive computer programs for modeling fuel and fire behavior that consists of two systems: BURN and FUEL.

Blackline: In fire suppression, a blackline denotes a condition where there is no unburned material between the line and the fire edge.

Bladder Bag: A collapsible backpack portable sprayer made of neoprene or high-strength nylon fabric fitted with a pump. (See also Backpack Pump.)

Blow-up: A sudden increase in fire intensity or rate of spread strong enough to prevent direct control or to upset control plans. Blow-ups are often accompanied by violent convection and may have other characteristics of a fire storm. (See Flare-up.)

Brush: A collective term that refers to stands of vegetation dominated by shrubby, woody plants, or low growing trees, usually of a type undesirable for livestock or timber management.

Brush Fire: A fire burning in vegetation that is predominantly shrubs, brush and scrub growth.

Bucket: Any device suspended by cables from a helicopter designed to contain and drop retardant or water onto a fire.

Bucket Drops: The dropping of fire retardants or suppressants from specially designed buckets slung below a helicopter.

Buffer Zones: An area of reduced vegetation that separates wildlands from vulnerable residential or business developments. This barrier is similar to a greenbelt in that it is usually used for another purpose such as agriculture, recreation areas, parks, or golf courses.

Bump-up Method: A progressive method of building a fire line on a wildfire without changing relative positions in the line. Work is begun with a suitable space between workers. Whenever one worker overtakes another, all workers ahead move one space forward and resume work on the uncompleted part of the line. The last worker does not move ahead until completing his or her space.

Burn Out: Setting fire inside a control line to widen it or consume fuel between the edge of the fire and the control line.

Burning Out: When attack is direct, intentionally setting fire to fuels inside the control line to strengthen the line. Burning out is almost always done as a part of line construction, the control line is considered incomplete unless there is no fuel between the fire and the line. See Backfiring for difference.

Burning Ban: A declared ban on open air burning within a specified area, usually due to sustained high fire danger.

Burning Conditions: The state of the combined factors of the environment that affect fire behavior in a specified fuel type.

Calculation of Probabilities: Evaluation of all existing factors pertinent to probably future behavior of a going fire and of the potential ability of available forces to carry out control operations on a given time schedule.

Campfire: As used to classify the cause of a wildland fire, a fire that was started for cooking or warming that spreads sufficiently from its source to require action by a fire control agency.

Canopy: The stratum containing the crowns of the tallest vegetation present (living or dead), usually above 20 feet.

Center Firing: A method of broadcast burning in which fires are set in the center of the area to create a strong draft; additional fires are then set progressively nearer the outer control lines as in-draft builds up so as to draw them in toward the center.

Chain: A unit of linear measurement equal to 66 feet.

Class A Foam: Foam intended for use on Class A or woody fuels; made from hydrocarbon-based surfactant, therefore lacking the strong filming properties of Class B foam, but possessing excellent wetting properties.

Closure: Legal restriction, but not necessarily elimination of specified activities such as smoking, camping, or entry that might cause fires in a given area.

Cold Front: The leading edge of a relatively cold air mass that displaces warmer air. The heavier cold air may cause some of the warm air to be lifted. If the lifted air contains enough moisture, the result may be cloudiness, precipitation, and thunderstorms. If both air masses are dry, no clouds may form. Following the passage of a cold front in the Northern Hemisphere, westerly or northwesterly winds of 15 to 30 or more miles per hour often continue for 12 to 24 hours.

Cold Trailing: A method of controlling a partly dead fire edge by carefully inspecting and feeling with the hand for heat to detect any fire, digging out every live spot, and trenching any live edge.

Combustible: Any material that, in the form in which it is used and under the conditions anticipated will ignite and burn.

Command Staff: The command staff consists of the information officer, safety officer and liaison officer. They report directly to the incident commander and may have assistants.

Complex: Two or more individual incidents located in the same general area which are assigned to a single incident commander or unified command.

Confine a Fire: To restrict the fire within determined boundaries established either prior to or during the fire.

Conflagration: A raging, destructive fire often used to describe a fire burning under extreme fire weather. The term is also used when a wildland fire burns into a wildland/urban interface, destroying many structures.

Constraints: Parameters or limitations on the use of specific suppression resources.

Contain a fire: A fuel break around the fire has been completed. This break may include natural barriers or manually and/or mechanically constructed line.

Containment: Completion of a control line around a fire and any associated spot fires, which can be expected to stop fire spread.

Control a fire: The complete extinguishment of a fire, including spot fires. Fire line has been strengthened so that flare-ups from within the perimeter of the fire will not break through this line.

Control Forces: Resources used to control a fire.

Control Line: All built or natural fire barriers and treated fire edge used to control a fire.

Cooperating Agency: An agency supplying assistance other than direct suppression, rescue, support, or service functions to the incident control effort; e.g., Red Cross, law enforcement agency, telephone company, etc.

Coyote Tactics: A progressive line construction duty involving self-sufficient crews that build fire line until the end of the operational period, remain at or near the point while off duty, and begin building fire line again the next operational period where they left off.

Creeping Fire: Fire burning with a low flame and spreading slowly.

Crew Boss: A person in supervisory charge of usually 16 to 21 firefighters and responsible for their performance, safety, and welfare.

Crown Fire (Crowning): The movement of fire through the crowns of trees or shrubs more or less independently of the surface fire.

Curing: Drying and browning of herbaceous vegetation or slash.

Dead Fuels: Fuels with no living tissue in which moisture content is governed almost entirely by atmospheric moisture (relative humidity and precipitation), dry-bulb temperature, and solar radiation.

Debris Burning Fire: In fire suppression, a fire spreading from any fire originally ignited to clear land or burn rubbish, garbage, crop stubble, or meadows (excluding incendiary fires).

Defensible Space: An area either natural or manmade where material capable of causing a fire to spread has been treated, cleared, reduced, or changed to act as a barrier between an advancing wildland fire and the loss to life, property, or resources. In practice, "defensible space" is defined as an area a minimum of 30 feet around a structure that is cleared of flammable brush or vegetation.

Detection: The act or system of discovering and locating fires.

Direct Attack: Any treatment of burning fuel, such as by wetting, smothering, or chemically quenching the fire or by physically separating burning from unburned fuel.

Dispatch: The implementation of a command decision to move a resource or resources from one place to another.

Dispatcher: A person employed who receives reports of discovery and status of fires, confirms their locations, takes action promptly to provide people and equipment likely to be needed for control in first attack, and sends them to the proper place.

Dispatch Center: A facility from which resources are directly assigned to an incident.

Division: Divisions are used to divide an incident into geographical areas of operation. Divisions are established when the number of resources exceeds the span-of-control of the operations chief. A division is located with the Incident Command System organization between the branch and the task force/strike team.

Division Supervisor: An operations supervisor responsible for all suppression activities on a specific division of a fire.

Dozer: Any tracked vehicle with a front-mounted blade used for exposing mineral soil.

Dozer Boss: A person responsible for supervising one or more dozers.

Dozer Line: Fire line constructed by the front blade of a dozer.

Drip Torch: Hand-held device for igniting fires by dripping flaming liquid fuel on the materials to be burned; consists of a fuel fount, burner arm, and igniter. Fuel used is generally a mixture of diesel and gasoline.

Drop Zone: Target area for air tankers, helitankers, and cargo dropping.

Drought Index: A number representing net effect of evaporation, transpiration, and precipitation in producing cumulative moisture depletion in deep duff or upper soil layers.

Dry Lightning Storm: Thunderstorm in which negligible precipitation reaches the ground. Also called a dry storm.

Duff: The layer of decomposing organic materials lying below the litter layer of freshly fallen twigs, needles, and leaves and immediately above the mineral soil.

Energy Release Component (ERC): The computed total heat released per unit area (British thermal units per square foot) within the fire front at the head of a moving fire.

Engine: Any ground vehicle providing specified levels of pumping, water and hose capacity.

Engine Company: Any ground vehicle providing specified levels of pumping, water, hose capacity, and personnel.

Engine Crew: Firefighters assigned to an engine. The Fire line Handbook defines the minimum crew makeup by engine type.

Entrapment: A situation where personnel are unexpectedly caught in a fire behavior-related, life-threatening position where planned escape routes or safety zones are absent, inadequate, or compromised. An entrapment may or may not include deployment of a fire shelter for its intended purpose. These situations may or may not result in injury. They include "near misses."

Environmental Assessment (EA): EAs were authorized by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. They are concise, analytical documents prepared with public participation that determine if an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is needed for a particular project or action. If an EA determines an EIS is not needed, the EA becomes the document allowing agency compliance with NEPA requirements.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): EISs were authorized by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. Prepared with public participation, they assist decision makers by providing information, analysis and an array of action alternatives, allowing managers to see the probable effects of decisions on the environment. Generally, EISs are written for large-scale actions or geographical areas.

Escape Route: A preplanned and understood route firefighters take to move to a safety zone or other low-risk area, such as an already burned area, previously constructed safety area, a meadow that won’t burn, natural rocky area that is large enough to take refuge without being burned. When escape routes deviate from a defined physical path, they should be clearly marked (flagged).

ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival.

ETD: Estimated Time of Departure.

Evacuation: the temporary movement of people and their possessions from locations threatened by wildfire.

Exposure: Property that may be endangered by a fire burning in another structure or by a wildfire. In general, property within 40 feet (12 meters) of a fire may be considered to involve exposure hazard, although, in very large fires, danger may exist at much greater distances.

Extended Attack Incident: A wildland fire that has not been contained or controlled by initial attack forces and for which more firefighting resources are arriving, en route, or being ordered by the initial attack incident commander.

Extreme Fire Behavior: "Extreme" implies a level of fire behavior characteristics that ordinarily precludes methods of direct control action. One of more of the following is usually involved: high rate of spread, prolific crowning and/or spotting, presence of fire whirls, strong convection column. Predictability is difficult because such fires often exercise some degree of influence on their environment and behave erratically, sometimes dangerously.

Faller: A person who fells trees. Also called a sawyer or cutter.

Field Observer: Person responsible to the Situation Unit Leader for collecting and reporting information about an incident obtained from personal observations and interviews.

Final: An air tanker is said to be "on final" when it is on line with the target and intends to make the drop on that pass. Applies also to cargo dropping.

Fine (Light) Fuels: Fast-drying fuels, generally with a comparatively high surface area-to-volume ratio, which is less than 1/4-inch in diameter and has a timelag of one hour or less. These fuels readily ignite and are rapidly consumed by fire when dry.

Fingers of a Fire: The long narrow extensions of a fire projecting from the main body.

Fire Behavior: The manner in which a fire reacts to the influences of fuel, weather and topography.

Fire Behavior Forecast: Prediction of probable fire behavior usually prepared by a Fire Behavior Officer, in support of fire suppression or prescribed burning operations.

Fire Brand: any source of heat, natural or human made, capable of igniting wildland fuels. Flaming or glowing fuel particles that can be carried naturally by wind, convection currents, or by gravity into unburned fuels. Examples include leaves, pine cones, glowing charcoal, and sparks.

Fire Break: A natural or constructed barrier used to stop or check fires that may occur, or to provide a control line from which to work.

Fire Cache: 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 Crew: An organized group of firefighters under the leadership of a crew leader or other designated official.

Fire Danger Index: A relative number indicating the severity of wildland fire danger as determined from burning conditions and other variable factors of fire danger.

Fire Department: Any regularly organized fire department, fire protection district or fire company regularly charged with the responsibility of providing fire protection to the jurisdiction.

Firefighter: a person who is trained and proficient in the components of structural or wildland fire.

Firefighting Resources: All people and major items of equipment that can or potentially could be assigned to fires.

Fire Foam: An extinguishing agent, chemically and/or mechanically produced, that blankets and adheres to the fuel, reducing combustion. It relies on moisture it contains for its effectiveness, so is a short-term suppressant.

Fire Front: 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 Hazard: 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 Hydrant: A valved connection on a piped water supply system having one or more outlets that is used to supply hose and fire department pumpers with water.

Fire Intensity: A general term relating to the heat energy released by a fire.

Fire Line: A linear fire barrier that is scraped or dug to mineral soil.

Fire Load: The number and size of fires historically experienced on a specified unit over a specified period (usually one day) at a specified index of fire danger.

Fire Perimeter: The entire outer edge or boundary of a fire.

Fire Prevention: Activities, including education, engineering, enforcement and administration that are directed at reducing the number of wildfires, the costs of suppression, and fire-caused damage to resources and property.

Fire Proofing: Removing or treating fuel with fire retardant to reduce the danger of fires igniting or spreading (e.g., fire-proofing roadsides, campsites, structural timber). Protection is relative, not absolute.

Fire Protection: The actions taken to limit the adverse environmental, social, political and economical effects of fire.

Fire Regime: periodicity and pattern of naturally-occurring fires in a particular area or vegetative type, described in terms of frequency, biological severity, and area extent. For example, frequent, low-intensity surface fires with one to 25-year return intervals occur in the southern pine forests of the Southeastern United States, the sawgrass everglades of Florida, the mixed conifer forests of the western Sierras of California, and so forth.

Fire Resistant Roofing: The classification of roofing assemblies A, B or C as defined in the Uniform Building code (UPC) Standard 32.7.

Fire Resistant Tree: A species with compact, resin-free, thick corky bark and less flammable foliage that has a relatively lower probability of being killed or scarred by a fire than a fire sensitive tree.

Fire Resistive Rating: the time that the material or construction will withstand fire exposure as determined by a fire test made in conformity with the standard methods of fire tests of building, construction and materials.

Fire Retardant: Any substance except plain water that by chemical or physical action reduces the flammability of fuels or slows their rate of combustion, e.g., a liquid or slurry applied aerially or from the ground during a fire suppression operation.

Fire Season: 1) Period(s) of the year during which wildland fires are likely to occur, spread, and affect resource values sufficient to warrant organized fire management activities. 2) A legally enacted time during which burning activities are regulated by state or local authority.

Fire Shelter: An aluminized tent offering protection by means of reflecting radiant heat and providing a volume of breathable air in a fire entrapment situation. Fire shelters should only be used in life-threatening situations, as a last resort.

Fire Storm: Violent convection caused by a large continuous area of intense fire. Often characterized by destructively violent surface indrafts, near and beyond the perimeter, and sometimes by tornado-like whirls.

Fire Suppressant: Any agent used to extinguish the flaming and glowing phases of combustion by direct application to the burning fuel.

Fire Triangle: An Instructional aid in which the sides of a triangle are used to represent the three factors (oxygen, heat, fuel) necessary for combustion and flame production; removal of any of the three factors causes flame production to cease.

Fire Use Module (Prescribed Fire Module): A team of skilled and mobile personnel dedicated primarily to prescribed fire management. These are national and interagency resources, available throughout the prescribed fire season, that can ignite, hold and monitor prescribed fires.

Fire Weather: Weather conditions that influence fire ignition, behavior and suppression.

Fire Weather Watch: A term used by fire weather forecasters to notify using agencies, usually 24 to 72 hours ahead of the event, that current and developing meteorological conditions may evolve into dangerous fire weather.

Fire Whirl: Spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris, and flame. Fire whirls range in size from less than one foot to more than 500 feet in diameter. Large fire whirls have the intensity of a small tornado.

Firewise Construction: The use of materials and systems in the design and construction of a building or structure to safeguard against the spread of fire within a building or structure and the spread of fire to or from buildings or structures to the wildland/urban interface area.

Firewise Landscaping: Vegetative management that removes flammable fuels from around a structure to reduce exposure to radiant heat. The flammable fuels may be replaced with green lawn, gardens, certain individually spaced green, ornamental shrubs, individually spaced and pruned trees, decorative stone or other non-flammable or flame-resistant materials.

Flame Height: The average maximum vertical extension of flames at the leading edge of the fire front. Occasional flashes that rise above the general level of flames are not considered. This distance is less than the flame length if flames are tilted due to wind or slope.

Flame: A mass of gas undergoing rapid combustion, generally accompanied by evolution of sensible heat and incandescence.

Flame Length: The distance between the flame tip and the midpoint of the flame depth at the base of the flame (generally the ground surface); an indicator of fire intensity.

Flammability: The relative ease with which fuels ignite and burn regardless of the quantity of the fuels.

Flanks of a Fire: The parts of a fire’s perimeter that are roughly parallel to the main direction of spread.

Flank Fire: A firing technique consisting of treating an area with lines of fire set into the wind which burn outward at right angles to the wind.

Flanking Fire Suppression: Working along the flanks, whether simultaneously or successively, from a less active or anchor point toward the head of a fire in order to contain the latter.

Flare-up: Any sudden acceleration of fire spread or intensification of a fire. Unlike a blow-up, a flare-up lasts a relatively short time and does not radically change control plans.

Flash Fuels: Fuels such as grass, leaves, draped pine needles, fern, tree moss and some kinds of slash, that ignite readily and are consumed rapidly when dry. Also called fine fuels.

Flashover: In structural fire terminology, flashover occurs when radiation and convection from burning objects within an enclosure heat the walls and other objects in the enclosure to their ignition temperature and all flammable interior surfaces begin to flame. Flashover in a room is marked by a large increase in flame volume and a sudden, marked rise in gas temperature.

Foam: The aerated solution created by forcing air into, or entraining air in water containing a foam concentrate by means of suitably designed equipment or by cascading it through the air at a high velocity. Foam reduces combustion by cooling, moistening and excluding oxygen.

Forb: A plant with a soft, rather than permanent woody stem, that is not a grass or grass-like plant.

Fuel: Combustible material. Includes, vegetation, such as grass, leaves, ground litter, plants, shrubs and trees that feed a fire. (See Surface Fuels.)

Fuel Condition: Relative flammability of fuel as determined by fuel type and environmental conditions.

Fuel Bed: An array of fuels usually constructed with specific loading, depth and particle size to meet experimental requirements; also, commonly used to describe the fuel composition in natural settings.

Fuel Model: Simulated fuel complex (or combination of vegetation types) for which all fuel descriptors required for the solution of a mathematical rate of spread model have been specified.

Fuel Modification: Any manipulation or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of ignition or the resistance to fire control.

Fuel Moisture (Fuel Moisture Content): The quantity of moisture in fuel expressed as a percentage of the weight when thoroughly dried at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fuel Reduction: Manipulation, including combustion, or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of ignition and/or to lessen potential damage and resistance to control.

Fuel Type: An identifiable association of fuel elements of a distinctive plant species, form, size, arrangement, or other characteristics that will cause a predictable rate of fire spread or difficulty of control under specified weather conditions.

General Staff: The group of incident management personnel reporting to the incident commander. They may each have a deputy, as needed. Staff consists of operations section chief, planning section chief, logistics section chief, and finance/administration section chief.

Geographic Area: A political boundary designated by the wildland fire protection agencies, where these agencies work together in the coordination and effective utilization.

Greenbelt: A fuel break designated for use other than fire protection.

Ground Fire: Fire that consumes the organic material in the soil layer (e.g., a "peat fire").

Ground Fuel: All combustible materials below the surface litter, including duff, tree or shrub roots, punchy wood, peat, and sawdust that normally support a glowing combustion without flame.

Haines Index: An atmospheric index used to indicate the potential for wildfire growth by measuring the stability and dryness of the air over a fire.

Hand Line: A fire line built with hand tools.

Hazardous Areas: Those wildland areas where the combination of vegetation, topography, weather, and the threat of fire to life and property create difficult and dangerous problems.

Hazard Reduction: Any treatment of a hazard that reduces the threat of ignition and fire intensity or rate of spread.

Head of a Fire: The side of the fire having the fastest rate of spread.

Heavy Fuels: Fuels of large diameter such as snags, logs, large limb wood, that ignite and are consumed more slowly than flash fuels.

Held Line: All worked control lines that still contain the fire when mop-up is completed.

Helibase: The main location within the general incident area for parking, fueling, maintaining, and loading helicopters. The helibase is usually located at or near the incident base.

Helibucket: A specially designed bucket carried by a helicopter like a sling load and used to drop suppressants or retardants.

Helitack: Fire suppression using helicopters and trained airborne teams to achieve control of the wildfire.

Helitanker: A helicopter equipped with either a helitank or a helibucket.

Helitack Crew: A group of firefighters trained in the technical and logistical use of helicopters for fire suppression.

Helispot: A temporary landing spot for helicopters.

Helitorch: An ignition device suspended under a helicopter, capable of dispensing ignited fuel to the ground to assist in burning out or backfiring.

Holding Actions: Planned actions required to achieve wildland prescribed fire management objectives. These actions have specific implementation timeframes for fire use actions but can have less sensitive implementation demands for suppression actions.

Holding Resources: Firefighting personnel and equipment assigned to do all required fire suppression work following fire line construction but generally not including extensive mop-up.

Hose Lay: Arrangement of connected lengths of fire hose and accessories on the ground, beginning at the first pumping unit and ending at the point of water delivery.

Hotshot Crew: A highly trained fire crew used mainly to build fire line by hand. A Type I handcrew.

Hotspotting: Reducing or stopping the spread of fire at points of particularly rapid rate of spread or special threat, generally the first step in prompt control, with emphasis on first priorities.

Human-Caused Fire: Any fire caused directly or indirectly by person(s).

Human-Caused Risk: The probability of a fire ignition as a result of human activities.

Hydrant: A discharge pipe with three valve and fittings at which water can be drawn from a water main or other source for the purpose of fighting fires.

Ignition Probability: Chance that a firebrand will cause an ignition when it lands on receptive fuels.

Ignition Time: Time between application of an ignition source and self-sustained combustion of a fuel.

Incident: A human-caused or natural occurrence, such as wildland fire, that requires emergency service action to prevent or reduce the loss of life or damage to property or natural resources.

Incident Action Plan (IAP): Contains objectives reflecting the overall incident strategy and specific tactical actions and supporting information for the next operational period. The plan may be oral or written. When written, the plan may have a number of attachments, including: incident objectives, organization assignment list, division assignment, incident radio communication plan, medical plan, traffic plan, safety plan, and incident map.

Incident Command Post (ICP): Location at which primary command functions are executed. The ICP may be co-located with the incident base or other incident facilities.

Incident Command System (ICS): The combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedure and communications operating within a common organizational structure, with responsibility for the management of assigned resources to effectively accomplish stated objectives pertaining to an incident.

Incident Commander: Individual responsible for the management of all incident operations at the incident site.

Incident Management Team: The incident commander and appropriate general or command staff personnel assigned to manage an incident.

Incident Objectives: Statements of guidance and direction necessary for selection of appropriate strategy(ies), and the tactical direction of resources. Incident objectives are based on realistic expectations of what can be accomplished when all allocated resources have been effectively deployed.

Indirect Attack: A method of suppression in which the control line is located some considerable distance away from the fire’s active edge. Generally done in the case of a fast-spreading or high-intensity fire and to utilize natural or constructed firebreaks or fuelbreaks and favorable breaks in the topography. The intervening fuel is usually backfired; but occasionally the main fire is allowed to burn to the line, depending on conditions.

Infrared Detection: The use of heat sensing equipment, known as Infrared Scanners, for detection of heat sources that are not visually detectable by the normal surveillance methods of either ground or air patrols.

Initial Attack: The actions taken by the first resources to arrive at a wildfire to protect lives and property, and prevent further extension of the fire.

I-Zone: The line, area, or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels.

Jump Spot: Selected landing area for smokejumpers.

Keech Byram Drought Index (KBDI): Commonly-used drought index adapted for fire management applications, with a numerical range from 0 (no moisture deficiency) to 800 (maximum drought).

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

Ladder Fuels: 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.

Large Fire: 1) For statistical purposes, a fire burning more than a specified area of land e.g., 300 acres. 2) 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.

Light (Fine) Fuels: Fast-drying fuels, generally with a comparatively high surface area-to-volume ratio, which is less than 1/4-inch in diameter and has a timelag of one hour or less. These fuels readily ignite and are rapidly consumed by fire when dry.

Lightning Activity Level (LAL): A number, on a scale of 1 to 6 that reflects frequency and character of cloud-to-ground lightning. The scale is exponential, based on powers of 2 (i.e., LAL 3 indicates twice the lightning of LAL 2).

Line Scout: A firefighter who determines the location of a fire line.

Litter: Top layer of the forest, scrubland, or grassland floor, directly above the fermentation layer, composed of loose debris of dead sticks, branches, twigs, and recently fallen leaves or needles, little altered in structure by decomposition.

Live Fuels: Living plants, such as trees, grasses, and shrubs, in which the seasonal moisture content cycle is controlled largely by internal physiological mechanisms, rather than by external weather influences.

Mineral Soil: Soil layers below the predominantly organic horizons; soil with little combustible material.

Mitigation: Action that moderates the severity of a fire hazard or risk.

Mobilization: The process and procedures used by all organizations, federal, state and local for activating, assembling, and transporting all resources that have been requested to respond to or support an incident.

Modified Suppression: Suppression action dictated by one or more management constraints that affect strategy and/or tactics.

Mop-up: To make a fire safe or reduce residual smoke after the fire has been controlled by extinguishing or removing burning material along or near the control line, felling snags, or moving logs so they won’t roll downhill.

Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC): A generalized term which describes the functions and activities of representatives of involved agencies and/or jurisdictions who come together to make decisions regarding the prioritizing of incidents, and the sharing and use of critical resources. The MAC organization is not a part of the on-scene ICS and is not involved in developing incident strategy or tactics.

 Mutual Aid Agreement: Written agreement between agencies and/or jurisdictions in which they agree to assist one another upon request, by furnishing personnel and equipment.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): NEPA is the basic national law for protection of the environment, passed by Congress in 1969. It sets policy and procedures for environmental protection, and authorizes Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments to be used as analytical tools to help federal managers make decisions.

National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS): A uniform fire danger rating system that focuses on the environmental factors that control the moisture content of fuels.

National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG): A group formed under the direction of the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior and comprised of representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Association of State Foresters. The group’s purpose is to facilitate coordination and effectiveness of wildland fire activities and provide a forum to discuss, recommend action, or resolve issues and problems of substantive nature. NWCG is the certifying body for all courses in the National Fire Curriculum.

Natural Barrier: A naturally occurring obstruction to the spread of fire.

Non-Combustible: A material that, in the form in which it is used and under the conditions anticipated, will not aid combustion or add appreciable heat to an ambient fire.

Normal Fire Season: 1) A season when weather, fire danger, and number and distribution of fires are about average. 2) Period of the year that normally comprises the fire season.

Open Burning: Uncontrolled burning of wastes in the open or in an open dump.

Operations Branch Director: Person under the direction of the operations section chief who is responsible for implementing that portion of the incident action plan appropriate to the branch.

Operational Period: The period of time scheduled for execution of a given set of tactical actions as specified in the Incident Action Plan. Operational periods can be of various lengths, although usually not more than 24 hours.

Orbit: The circular holding pattern of an air tanker in the vicinity of a fire waiting for orders to make a drop.

Overstory: That portion of the trees in a forest which forms the upper or uppermost layer.

Pack Test: Used to determine the aerobic capacity of fire suppression and support personnel and assign physical fitness scores. The test consists of walking a specified distance, with or without a weighted pack, in a predetermined period of time, with altitude corrections.

Peak Fire Season: That period of the fire season during which fires are expected to ignite most readily, to burn with greater than average intensity, and to create damages at an unacceptable level.

Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE): All firefighting personnel must be equipped with proper equipment and clothing in order to mitigate the risk of injury from, or exposure to, hazardous conditions encountered while working. PPE includes, but is not limited to: 8-inch high-laced leather boots with lug soles, fire shelter, hard hat with chin strap, goggles, ear plugs, aramid shirts and trousers, leather gloves and individual first aid kits.

Preparedness: Condition or degree of being ready to cope with a potential fire situation

Prescribed Burning: controlled application of fire to wildland fuels in either their natural or modified state, under specified environmental conditions, which allows the fire to be confined to a predetermined area, and to produce the fire behavior and fire characteristics required to attain planned fire treatment and resource management objectives.

Prescribed Fire: Any fire ignited by management actions under certain, predetermined conditions to meet specific objectives related to hazardous fuels or habitat improvement. A written, approved prescribed fire plan must exist, and NEPA requirements must be met, prior to ignition.

Prescribed Fire Plan (Burn Plan): This document provides the prescribed fire burn boss information needed to implement an individual prescribed fire project.

Prescription: Measurable criteria that define conditions under which a prescribed fire may be ignited, guide selection of appropriate management responses, and indicate other required actions. Prescription criteria may include safety, economic, public health, environmental, geographic, administrative, social, or legal considerations.

Prevention: Activities directed at reducing the incidence of fires, including public education, law enforcement, personal contact, and reduction of fuel hazards.

Property Protection: To protect structures from damage by fire, whether the fire is inside the structure, or is threatening the structure from an exterior source. The municipal firefighter is trained and equipped for this mission and not usually trained and equipped to suppress wildland fires. Wildland fire protection agencies are not normally trained nor are they charged with the responsibility to provide structural fire protection but will act within their training and capabilities to safely prevent a wildland fire from igniting structures.

Protection Area: That area for which a particular fire protection organization has the primary responsibility for attacking an uncontrolled fire and for directing the suppression action. Such responsibility may develop through law, contract, or personal interest of the fire protection agent. Several agencies or entities may have some basic responsibilities without being known as the fire organization having direct protection responsibility.

Pulaski: A combination chopping and trenching tool, which combines a single-bitted axe-blade with a narrow adze-like trenching blade fitted to a straight handle. Useful for grubbing or trenching in duff and matted roots. Well-balanced for chopping.

Radiant Burn: A burn received from a radiant heat source.

Rate of Spread: The relative activity of a fire in extending its horizontal dimensions. It is expressed as a rate of increase of the total perimeter of the fire, as rate of forward spread of the fire front, or as rate of increase in area, depending on the intended use of the information. Usually it is expressed in chains or acres per hour for a specific period in the fire’s history.

Reburn: The burning of an area that has been previously burned but that contains flammable fuel that ignites when burning conditions are more favorable; an area that has reburned.

Red Card: Fire qualification card issued to fire rated persons showing their training needs and their qualifications to fill specified fire suppression and support positions in a large fire suppression or incident organization.

Red Flag Warning: Term used by fire weather forecasters to alert forecast users to an ongoing or imminent critical fire weather pattern.

Rehabilitation: The activities necessary to repair damage or disturbance caused by wildland fires or the fire suppression activity.

Relative Humidity (Rh): The ratio of the amount of moisture in the air, to the maximum amount of moisture that air would contain if it were saturated. The ratio of the actual vapor pressure to the saturated vapor pressure.

Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS): An apparatus that automatically acquires, processes, and stores local weather data for later transmission to the GOES Satellite, from which the data is re-transmitted to an earth-receiving station for use in the National Fire Danger Rating System.

Response: Movement of an individual firefighting resource from its assigned standby location to another location or to an incident in reaction to dispatch orders or to a reported alarm.

Resources: 1) Personnel, equipment, services and supplies available, or potentially available, for assignment to incidents. 2) The natural resources of an area, such as timber, crass, watershed values, recreation values, and wildlife habitat.

Resource Management Plan (RMP): A document prepared by field office staff with public participation and approved by field office managers that provides general guidance and direction for land management activities at a field office. The RMP identifies the need for fire in a particular area and for a specific benefit.

Resource Order: An order placed for firefighting or support resources.

Retardant: A substance or chemical agent which reduced the flammability of combustibles.

Risk: The chance of a fire starting from any cause.

Run (of a fire): The rapid advance of the head of a fire with a marked change in fire line intensity and rate of spread from that noted before and after the advance.

Running: A rapidly spreading surface fire with a well-defined head.

Rural Fire District (RFD): A fire district organized under Montana statutes.

Rural Fire Protection: Fire protection and firefighting problems that are outside of areas under municipal fire prevention and building regulations and that are usually remote from public water supplies.

Safety Zone: An area cleared of flammable materials used for escape in the event the line is outflanked or in case a spot fire causes fuels outside the control line to render the line unsafe. In firing operations, crews progress so as to maintain a safety zone close at hand allowing the fuels inside the control line to be consumed before going ahead. Safety zones may also be constructed as integral parts of fuel breaks; they are greatly enlarged areas which can be used with relative safety by firefighters and their equipment in the event of a blowup in the vicinity.

Scratch Line: An unfinished preliminary fire line hastily established or built as an emergency measure to check the spread of fire.

Severity Funding: Funds provided to increase wildland fire suppression response capability necessitated by abnormal weather patterns, extended drought, or other events causing abnormal increase in the fire potential and/or danger.

Single Resource: An individual, a piece of equipment and its personnel complement, or a crew or team of individuals with an identified work supervisor that can be used on an incident.

Size-up: To evaluate a fire to determine a course of action for fire suppression.

Slash: Debris left after logging, pruning, thinning or brush cutting; includes logs, chips, bark, branches, stumps and broken understory trees or brush.

Sling Load: Any cargo carried beneath a helicopter and attached by a lead line and swivel.

Slope: The variation of terrain from the horizontal; the number of feet rise or fall per 100 feet measured horizontally, expressed as a percentage.

Slop-over: A fire edge that crosses a control line or natural barrier intended to contain the fire.

Smoke: (1) The visible products of combustion rising above a fire. (2) Term used when reporting a fire or probable fire in its initial stages.

Smokejumper: A firefighter who travels to fires by aircraft and parachute.

Smoke Management: Application of fire intensities and meteorological processes to minimize degradation of air quality during prescribed fires.

Smoldering Fire: A fire burning without flame and barely spreading.

Snag: A standing dead tree or part of a dead tree from which at least the smaller branches have fallen.

Spark Arrester: A device installed in a chimney, flue, or exhaust pipe to stop the emission of sparks and burning fragments.

Spot Fire: A fire ignited outside the perimeter of the main fire by flying sparks or embers.

Spot Weather Forecast: A special forecast issued to fit the time, topography, and weather of each specific fire. These forecasts are issued upon request of the user agency and are more detailed, timely, and specific than zone forecasts.

Spotter: In smoke jumping, the person responsible for selecting drop targets and supervising all aspects of dropping smokejumpers.

Staging Area: Locations set up at an incident where resources can be placed while awaiting a tactical assignment on a three-minute available basis. Staging areas are managed by the operations section.

Strategy: The science and art of command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of an incident.

Strike Team: Specified combinations of the same kind and type of resources, with common communications, and a leader.

Strike Team Leader: Person responsible to a division/group supervisor for performing tactical assignments given to the strike team.

Structure Fire: Fire originating in and burning any part or all of any building, shelter, or other structure.

Structural Fire Protection: The protection of a structure from interior and exterior fire ignition sources. This fire protection service is normally provided by municipal fire departments, with trained and equipped personnel. After life safety, the agency’s priority is to keep the fire from leaving the structure of origin and to protect the structure from an advancing wildland fire. (The equipment and training required to conduct structural fire protection is not normally provided to the wildland firefighter). Various taxing authorities fund this service.

Suppressant: An agent, such as water or foam, used to extinguish the flaming and glowing phases of combustion when direction applied to burning fuels.

Suppression: All the work of extinguishing or containing a fire, beginning with its discovery.

Surface Fuels: Loose surface litter on the soil surface, normally consisting of fallen leaves or needles, twigs, bark, cones, and small branches that have not yet decayed enough to lose their identity; also grasses, forbs, low and medium shrubs, tree seedlings, heavier branch wood, downed logs, and stumps interspersed with or partially replacing the litter.

Swamper: (1) A worker who assists fallers and/or sawyers by clearing away brush, limbs and small trees. Carries fuel, oil and tools and watches for dangerous situations. (2) A worker on a dozer crew who pulls winch line, helps maintain equipment, etc., to speed suppression work on a fire.

Tactics: Deploying and directing resources on an incident to accomplish the objectives designated by strategy.

Torching: The ignition and flare-up of a tree or small group of trees, usually from bottom to top.

Tree Crown: The primary and secondary branches growing out from the main stem, together with twigs and foliage.

Two-way Radio: Radio equipment with transmitters in mobile units on the same frequency as the base station, permitting conversation in two directions using the same frequency in turn.

Type: The capability of a firefighting resource in comparison to another type. Type 1 usually means a greater capability due to power, size, or capacity.

Uncontrolled Fire: Any fire which threatens to destroy life, property, or natural resources, and

Underburn: A fire that consumes surface fuels but not trees or shrubs. (See Surface Fuels.)

Understory: Low-growing vegetation (herbaceous, brush or reproduction) growing under a stand of trees. Also, that portion of trees in a forest stand below the overstory.

Urban Interface: Any area where wildland fuels threaten to ignite combustible homes and structures.

Volunteer Fire Department (VFD): A fire department of which some or all members are unpaid.

Volunteer Firefighter: Legally enrolled firefighter under the fire department organization laws who devotes time and energy to community fire service without compensation other than Worker’s Compensation or other similar death and injury benefits.

Water Supply: A source of water for firefighting activities.

Water Tender: A ground vehicle capable of transporting specified quantities of water.

Wildfire: An unplanned and uncontrolled fire spreading through vegetative fuels, at times involving structures.

Wildfire Causes: The general causes of wildland fires are (1) natural (such as lightning), (2) accidental (debris burning, children with matches, and so forth), and (3) intentional (arson).

Wildland: An area in which development is essentially non-existent, except for roads, railroads, power lines, and similar transportation facilities. Structures, if any, area widely scattered.

Wildland Fire: Any non-structure fire, other than prescribed fire, that occurs in the wildland.

Wildland Fire Protection: The protection of natural resources and watersheds from damage by wildland fires. State and Federal forestry or land management agencies normally provide wildland fire protection with trained and equipped personnel. (The equipment and training required to conduct wildland fire protection is not normally provided to the structural fire protection firefighter). Various taxing authorities and fees fund this service.

Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA): A decision-making process that evaluates alternative suppression strategies against selected environmental, social, political, and economic criteria. Provides a record of decisions.

Wildland Fire Use: The management of naturally ignited wildland fires to accomplish specific prestated resource management objectives in predefined geographic areas outlined in Fire Management Plans.

Wildland Urban Interface: The line, area or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels.

Wind Vectors: Wind directions used to calculate fire behavior.

Alachua County, FL, General Plan, 2002

Applegate Fire Plan (Balancing Act, Living with Fire in the Applegate), 2002

Broadwater County Comprehensive Plan, Broadwater County, MT 1980.

Broadwater County Growth Policy Plan, Broadwater County, MT 2003.

Colorado Springs Fire Department, Wildfire Mitigation Plan, 2001.

Community Fire Plan Template Outline, California Community Fire Plan Workgroup, 2003

DeKalb Fire Department Master Plan, DeKalb, IL, 2000.

Dolores County Community Fire Plan, Dolores County, CO

Elkhorn Wildland Fire Guidebook, Helena NF, May 1999

Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests, James K. Agee, Island Press, 1993.

Fire and Emergency Service Self-Assessment Manual, Commission on Fire Accreditation International, 6^th. Edition.

Fire Protection Handbook, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA, 1997.

Fire Suppression Rating Schedule, Insurance Services Office, Inc. 08-98 ed.

Firewise Construction – Design and Materials, Peter Stack, Colorado State Forest Service.

Lower Mattole Fire Plan, 2002

Fire Logistics, Inc. has been tasked with identifying and establishing the relative cost for water supplies as a mitigation strategy to provide fire protection in Broadwater County.

There are several water supply mitigation strategies that are available to the county, they include:

Status Quo

Water Supply Requirements

Dry hydrants

Tanks with draft hydrants

Tanks with pumped hydrants

Large diameter hose

Water systems

Fire Sprinklers

Dollars in lieu of water supply

One measure of the effectiveness of the Broadwater County Rural Fire District is the "Total Intervention Time" (TIT) on an incident. Total intervention time is the accumulated time from the time of ignition to the time the fire department starts applying an extinguishing agent such as water on the fire. The time segments of TIT are:

1. Discovery of the fire.
2. Reporting the fire to the 911 Center.
3. Processing the call and dispatching the fire department.
4. Turnout of the fire department.
5. Travel Time to the incident
6. Initiation of action, i.e., assess the incident and apply the level of lifesaving/extinguishing tactics at the incident.

Response time typically refers to segments 3, 4, and 5.

 Standard benchmarks have been established for alarm processing and dispatching of the fire department and for turnout of the fire department in the Fire and Emergency Services Self-Assessment Manual developed by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.

The benchmark for dispatching is 50 seconds.

The benchmark for turnout of the fire department is 60 seconds. This benchmark is for staffed fire stations, because Broadwater RFD is an all volunteer organization, this timeframe becomes highly variable.

Fire sprinklers start fighting the fire within 1-3 minutes of ignition and before "flashover" has occurred. This will usually be 10-15 minutes before the fire department arrives on scene of the fire.

The mitigation strategies adopted by Broadwater County should be designed to minimize the "Total Intervention Time" as far as the water supply component of the fire fighting activity is concerned.

The current requirements of the Broadwater County Subdivision Regulations regarding water supply are:

In areas of high hazard:

While Broadwater County’s language is more inclusive than most other counties in the area, it leaves a potential applicant unclear as to the requirements for water supply for a project. In addition, in high hazard areas, the county’s requirements don’t begin to cover the requirements to meet Insurance Services Office (ISO) requirements for wildland/urban interface areas. For a wildland/urban interface area, the ISO would require an additional 500 gallons per minute (gpm) because it is an interface area; and if wood shakes and shingles are allowed an additional 500 gpm would be required in addition to the base fire flow required by the fire protection agency.

The cost of utilizing this approach has to be measured in conflict and uncertainty. The conflict is most likely to occur between a developer and the Broadwater County Rural

Fire District, when the district tries to impose a standard upon the developer. The uncertainty occurs when the developer tries to examine the subdivision regulations and determine the overall cost to the project of developing a water supply for fire protection.

Dry hydrants have been used extensively throughout Montana as a water supply source for fire protection. A dry hydrant is typically installed in a year around water source and the district’s fire apparatus must draft from the dry hydrant.

Dry hydrants are the least costly for a developer to install, but may have high maintenance costs depending on the water source in which it is installed. Some stream installations have significant silting problems and may require annual maintenance.

In addition, dry hydrants do not effectively minimize the TIT because the fire district must set up to draft from the site and develop either a water shuttle using water tenders or make long hose lays to fire site. Utilizing dry hydrants also may require the fire district to make additional capital outlays for fire engines to effectively utilize dry hydrants as the sole water supply source for the district.

Other items to consider when considering dry hydrants as a water supply strategy are:

1. All weather access to the dry hydrant.
2. Appropriate turnouts or access to the dry hydrant.
3. Permission of the landowner if on private property.
4. May require a permit to install the dry hydrant in a water source.

The cost of a typical dry hydrant is:

1. Less than $4,000.00 per installation, depending on whether PVC or steel hydrants are used.
2. Potentially the cost of an engine to the fire district ($100,000+).

Tanks with dry hydrants are another alternative for consideration as a water supply for fire protection. Rather than installing the dry hydrant in a year around water supply, the dry hydrant is installed into a tank. This approach requires less maintenance from a silting perspective, however, keeping the tank full becomes the challenge.

Certainly by combining the dry hydrant and tank with a well to keep the tank full solves this problem.

Cisterns and swimming pools are other options to consider for a water storage sources. Figure 5 shows a cistern being filled by a water supply off of the rain gutters on a home.

The drawbacks to this approach as a strategy for the County’s consideration is the same as with a dry hydrant, i.e., the lack of minimizing the TIT and the potential cost to the fire district of an engine.

Cost estimates for installing a dry hydrant on a tank are:

Tanks with pumped hydrants are similar in layout to the dry hydrants with tanks, except they are equipped with a pump either in the tank or adjacent to it so it can provide the hydrant with water under pressure. The pumps can be sized to provide sufficient fire flows for the risk being supplied with fire protection water.

A tank with a pumped hydrant will significantly reduce the TIT from the water supply aspect. The fire department will not have to set up an engine to draft or be required to commit an engine to the water supply point. They can either lay hose from the hydrant (if close to the fire scene) or a water tender can come to the hydrant and fill from the hydrant.

Other water sources that are pumped provide the same benefit. They include wells that are for fire protection water supply, irrigation pumps (may be seasonal) if equipped with a fire department connection, ponds with pumps and hydrants and etc.

A typical installation (capable of 500 gpm) is illustrated in Figures 6 & 7.

1. $1.25 per gallon for the 500 gpm pump, hydrant, tank, control panel, and exercise timer, including installation.
2. Cost for a small well to keep the tank full.
3. Cost for three phase electrical service.
4. The cost for an engine for the fire district is eliminated.

Large diameter hose provide an additional extension of the credit of a water source under the Insurance Services Office, Fire Suppression Grading Schedule. For example,

if an engine carried a minimum of 2,750 feet of 5 inch hose, the full credit of a water supply point or a hydrant would be given to that distance.

A fire department with large diameter hose is essentially laying the water main down the street, rather than having it installed under it. NFPA 1142 states that where delivery rates exceed 500 gpm and water is moved long distances, large diameter hose "provides a more efficient means of minimizing friction loss and developing the full potential of both water supplies and pumping capacities."

This results in increased productivity, since the same number of people and fire apparatus can use large diameter hose to move much more water over long distances. This would result in a reduction of the TIT for the fire district.

Large diameter hose – 5 inch diameter costs about $5.50 - $6.00 per foot, plus about $3,000.00 of appliances per engine.

Water systems are the ultimate solution to water supply systems for fire protection. As development become denser, community water systems become the water supply of choice to provide adequate fire flows to developing areas of the county.

Areas of commercial and industrial development almost demand community water systems to provide adequate fire flows. Extension of city services typically is the method that provides community water services; however, there are numerous water systems maintained and managed by homeowners and businesses.

Again, as with the pumped hydrants and tanks, the TIT is reduced so the fire department

can either lie from the hydrant

or fill the water tenders at the hydrants.

Allowing a developer to contribute dollars in lieu of installing a water supply is a strategy that is currently allowed in several counties in the area. However, most of them only allow this approach for minor subdivisions.

The difficulty in this approach is development of the fee to be contributed per lot in lieu of the water supply. Fees in Lewis and Clark County are established by the fire agencies and range from $200 per lot to $800.00 per lot. The Jefferson County Planning Department has established fees for the various fire districts in Jefferson County by a formula, resulting in fees that are between $800 - $900 per lot.

Another issue to consider is that the fire district is an all volunteer fire organization. They are not necessarily going to be excited about having to spend more time managing the installation of water supply points. Thus, the fee needs to be enough to cover the installation of the water supply points by a contractor.

Once established, the fee is a known number and the developer can plan on it as a cost of doing business.

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1142 – Standard on Water Supplies for Suburban and Rural Fire Fighting provides guidance on the amount of water which should be provided per building or group of buildings.

NFPA 1142 provides a method of calculating the minimum water supply for structures with exposure hazards and for structures without exposure hazards. An exposure hazard is defined as a structure within 50 feet of another building and 100 ft² or larger in area.

For structures with no exposure hazards, the minimum water supply, in gallons, is determined by the total cubic footage of the structure, including any attached structures, divided by the occupancy hazard classification number, as indicated in Chapter 3 of the standard, and multiplied by the construction classification number, as determined from Chapter 4 of the standard.

Total volume of structure

Minimum water supply = X Construction factor

The minimum water supply required for any structure without exposure hazards shall not be less than 2000 gallons.

The minimum water supply as determined for any structure shall be provided for emergency operations only.

Example Calculations – Residential, without exposure hazards.

For a dwelling with the following characteristics: (1) 50 ft by 24 ft; (2) 2 stories of 8 ft each; (3) with a pitched roof, 8 ft from attic floor to ridgepole; and (4) wood frame construction, the following calculations can be done:

50 × 24 = 1200 ft²

Height = 8 + 8 + 4 = 20 ft (For pitched roofs, use half the distance from attic floor to ridgepole.)

1200 × 20 = 24,000 ft³

The occupancy hazard classification number is 7 (Light Hazard) and the construction classification number is 1.0, for a frame dwelling, resulting in the following calculations:

(24,000 /7) × 1.0 = 3429 gallons

Minimum water supply equals 3429 gallons

For a dwelling with the following characteristics: (1) 50 ft by 24 ft; (2) 2 stories of 8 ft each; (3) with pitched roof, 8 ft from attic floor to ridgepole; and (4) wood frame construction, exposed on one side by a frame dwelling with a separation of less than 50 ft and with areas greater than 100 ft², the following calculations can be done:

50 × 24 = 1200 ft²

Height = 8 + 8 + 4 = 20 ft (For pitched roofs, use half the distance from attic floor to ridgepole.)

1200 × 20 = 24,000 ft³

The occupancy hazard classification number is 7 (Light Hazard) and the construction classification number is 1.0, for a frame building, resulting in the following calculation:

(24,000 /7) × 1.0 = 3429 gallons

Because the dwelling exposure is a frame dwelling, then multiply by the exposure factor of 1, as follows:

3429 gallons x 1.0 = 5144 gallons

Minimum water supply equals 5144 gallons.

Fire sprinklers save lives, reduce property damage and can help cut insurance premiums!

As a development strategy, if a developer were to choose to fully sprinkle a subdivision there are several incentives that might be applied to reduce the overall cost of a project. They are:

• Increased density
• Reduced fire flows
• Increased hydrant spacing
• Narrower streets
• Fewer parking restrictions
• Longer cul-de-sacs

Nationally, on average, home fire sprinklers systems add 1% to 1.5% to the total cost of new construction.

We have several recommendations:

1. Blend several of these strategies together, i.e., use strategies that reduce the TIT and do not pass costs on to the rural fire district. They might include:
1. Tanks with pumped hydrants
2. Large diameter hose
3. Water systems
4. Dollars in lieu of water supply
5. Fire sprinklers.

When strategies acceptable to the county are selected, incorporate them into the County’s Subdivision Regulations.

This section of the Broadwater County Subdivision regulations presents the minimum planning, construction, maintenance elements for subdivisions to provide for the protection of life and property from emergency incidents.

All subdivisions shall be planned, designed, constructed, and maintained so as to minimize the risk of fire and to permit effective and efficient response to and mitigation of emergency incidents in order to protect persons, property, and natural resource areas.

The placement of structures in such a manner so as to minimize the potential for flame spread and to permit efficient access for fire fighting equipment.

Alternative - A system, condition, arrangement, material, or equipment submitted to the Fire Protection Authority Having Jurisdiction (FPAHJ) as a substitute for a code requirement.

Approved - Acceptable to the Fire Protection Authority Having Jurisdiction.

Building. - Any structure used or intended for supporting any occupancy.

Combustible - Any material that, in the form in which it is used and under the conditions anticipated, will ignite and burn (see Noncombustible).

Defensible Space - An area as defined by the Vegetation Management Plan, between an improved property and a potential wildland fire where the combustibles have been removed or modified with the following intent:

a. To protect life and property from wildland fire.

Dry Hydrant. - An arrangement of pipe permanently connected to a year around water source other than a piped, pressurized water supply system that provides a ready means of water supply for firefighting purposes and that utilizes the drafting (suction) capability of fire department pumpers.

Dwelling - One or two living units, each providing complete and independent living facilities for one or more persons, including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.

Evacuation - The temporary movement of people and their possessions from locations threatened by wildland fire.

Fire Hydrant - A valved connection on a piped year around pressured water supply system having one or more outlets that is used to supply hose and fire department pumpers with water.

Fire Protection Authority Having Jurisdiction (FPAHJ) -The organization, office, or individual responsible for approving equipment, an installation, or a procedure.

Fire Resistant Landscaping - Vegetation management which removes flammable fuels from around a structure to reduce exposure to radiant heat. The flammable fuels maybe replaced with green lawn; gardens; certain individually spaced, green, ornamental shrubs; individually spaced and pruned trees; decorative rock or stone; or other non-flammable or flame resistant materials.

Fire Resistive or Fire Resistive Construction - Construction to resist the spread of fire, details of which are usually found in a Building Code.

Fuel Break - An area, strategically located for fighting anticipated fires, where the native vegetation has been permanently modified or replaced so that fires burning into it can be more easily controlled. Fuel breaks divide fire-prone areas into smaller areas for easier fire control and to provide access for fire fighting.

Fuel Loading -The volume of fuel in a given area generally expressed in tons per acre.

Fuel Modification - Any manipulation or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of ignition or the resistance to fire control.

Fuels - All combustible material within the wildland/urban interface, including vegetation and structures.

Greenbelt - An area with fire-resistive vegetation (planted or native), maintained to cause a reduction in fire intensity, and used for other than fire protection (golf course, cemetery, park, playground, mowed park, orchard, etc.).

Ground Fuels - All combustible materials such as grass, duff, loose surface litter, tree or shrub roots, rotting wood, leaves, peat, or sawdust that typically support combustion.

Hammerhead T - A roadway that provides a "T" shaped, three point turnaround for emergency equipment that is no narrower than the road that it serves. The top of the "T" shall be a minimum of 40 ft (12.19 m) long (see Turnaround).

Hazard - A fuel complex defined by kind, arrangement, volume, condition, and location that determines the ease of ignition and/or of resistance to fire control.

Ladder Fuels - Fuels that provide vertical continuity allowing fire to carry from surface fuels into the crowns of trees or shrubs with relative ease.

Listed - Equipment, materials, or services included in a list published by an organization that is acceptable to the Fire Protection Authority Having Jurisdiction and concerned with evaluation of products or services, that maintains periodic inspection of production of listed equipment or materials or periodic evaluation of services, and whose listing states that either the equipment, material, or service meets identified standards or has been tested and found suitable for a specified purpose.

Mitigation - Action that moderates the severity of a fire hazard or risk.

Noncombustible - A material that, in the form in which it is used and under the conditions anticipated, will not aid combustion or add appreciable heat to an ambient fire.

Rated Roof - A roof constructed with a "roof covering assembly" that is listed as meeting the requirements for Class A, B, or C "roof covering assembly materials."

Road - Any access way, not including a driveway, that gives access to more than one parcel and is primarily intended for vehicle access.

Shall - Indicates a mandatory requirement.

Should - Indicates a recommendation or that which is advised but not required.

Slope - Upward or downward incline or slant, usually calculated as a percent of slope [rise or fall per 100 ft (30.45 m) of horizontal distance].

Street or Road Identification Signs - Any sign containing words, numbers, directions, or symbols that provides information to emergency responders.

Structure - That which is built or constructed, an edifice or building of any kind, or any piece of work artificially built up or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner.

Turnaround - A portion of a roadway, unobstructed by parking, that allows for a safe reversal of direction for emergency equipment.

Turnouts - A widening in a travel way of sufficient length and width to allow vehicles to pass one another.

Vegetation Management Plan - A vegetation management plan reduces the amount of fuel available for wildland fires, reducing the probability of a rapidly spreading wildland fire. Elements of the plan include removal of slash, snags, other ground fuels, ladder fuels and dead trees, and thinning of live vegetation.

Water Supply - A source of water for firefighting activities.

Wildland fire - An unplanned and uncontrolled fire spreading through vegetative fuels, at times involving structures.

Wildland/Urban Interface. -An area where improved property and wildland fuels meet.

Every subdivision shall be provided with fire protection through a rural fire district, fire service area, or other means, of fire protection services adequate to respond to emergency incidents that may occur within a subdivision.

All proposed subdivisions shall provide a Fire Protection Plan prior to the subdivision application being considered complete by the Broadwater County Planning Department. The Fire Protection Plan must address all requirements of the Fire Protection Design Standards of the Broadwater County Subdivision Regulations.

The presence of adequate firefighting facilities for the site. Guidelines for determining the adequacy of fire protection can be found in Appendix 1.

At a minimum, every subdivision shall be provided with a water supply for the purpose of fire fighting, meeting the requirements of Section 4.

A water supply of sufficient volume, and water distribution system to fight fires on site shall be provided in accordance with the following requirements:

Install in every residential structure a fire protection sprinkler system engineered, installed and fully operational and compliant with the current edition of the applicable NFPA standard.

The minimum fire flow and flow duration for buildings other than one- and two-family dwellings shall be as specified in Table A-III-A-1 of the Uniform Fire Code.

Exception. A reduction in required fire flow of up to 75 percent, as approved, is allowed when the building is provided with an approved automatic sprinkler system. The resulting fire flow shall not be less than 1,500 gallons per minute.

4.4 Maintenance

Provisions must be incorporated in the plat documents describing how water supply systems are to be maintained currently and in the future, by whom, and how the local fire protection authority can be assured that the water supply will function appropriately. An easement for unrestricted use by the fire department, in perpetuity, of the water supply system shall be recorded and noted on the plat.

Access for emergency responders and evacuation shall be provided for all buildings.

5.1 Roads

b. Roads shall be constructed of an improved, all weather surface

designed to adequately support the heaviest emergency vehicle

likely to be operated on the road.

c. Dead Ends - Every dead-end roadway more than 300 ft (92 m) in

length shall be provided at the closed end with a turnaround having

a radius of 60 feet.

5.2 Driveways

a. Required - As approved by the FPAHJ, a driveway or other means

b. Width and Vertical Clearance - The driveway, including bridges,

c. Turnouts - Where the driveway is greater than 300 feet (91.4 in.), it

approved by the FPAHJ.

d. Construction - All driveways, including bridges and cattle guards,

an all-weather surface adequate to support the heaviest emergency

vehicle likely to be operated on the driveway as

e. Maximum Grades - Grades shall be no greater than 15 percent,

except as permitted by the FPAHJ.

f. Dead Ends - Every dead-end driveway road more than 300 ft (91.44 m) in length shall be provided with a turnaround at the

terminus having a minimum radius of 60 ft (15.24 m) to the center line. The FPAHJ shall be authorized to approve, as an alternative, a"hammerhead T" turnaround to provide emergency vehicles with a three-point turnaround ability.

5.3 Gates

6.1 General

All access routes and all buildings shall be uniquely designated on signs clearly visible and legible from the roadway on which it is addressed.

All letters, numbers, and symbols shall be a minimum of 4 in. (10.16 cm) in height, with a ½ in. (12.7 mm) stroke, and shall be reflectorized and contrasting with the background color of the sign.

6.3 Height of Signs

Road signs and addresses shall be mounted in accordance with Broadwater County Standards.

6.4 Construction

All road identification signs and supports shall be of noncombustible materials.

6.5 Names and Numbers

Approved roadways, driveway, dwellings, and commercial structures shall be identified by a consistent system that provides for sequenced or patterned numbering and non-duplicated naming within Broadwater County.

Special standards are required for subdivisions proposed in wildland/urban interface areas.

1. When the FPAHJ determines that existing improved property is, or a planned property improvement will be, located in a wildland/urban interface or intermix area, the FPAJH shall perform, or cause to be performed, a wildland fire risk and hazard severity analysis of the area to determine relative risk and hazard ratings.
2. The analysis shall, as a minimum, include the following:

• Identification and documentation of wildland fire risk and hazard

areas.

• Establishment of priorities relative to mitigating the dangers from

• Determination of mitigation measures for vegetation, other

2. Wildland Fire Risk and Hazard Severity Assessment

The Wildland Fire Risk and Hazard Severity Assessment form in Appendix 1 shall be completed to determine if a project is in a wildland/urban interface area. The Assessment Form should be completed by a recognized fire or fuels management specialist and approved by the FPAHJ.

3. Review of Wildland Fire Risk and Hazard Rating

The rating assignments developed to meet the requirements of this chapter shall be reviewed annually and updated as required.

4. Wildland/Urban Interface Areas

Wildland/Urban Interface Areas are defined as close areas rated as high or extreme hazard. Nothing in these regulations shall prevent an owner or developer from incorporating mitigation measures into a proposed project which might reduce the projects over Wildland Fire Risk and Hazard Assessment Rating.

1. The FPAHJ shall require or cause to be developed a plan to address the risk and hazards identified in the analysis.
2. This plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Access, ingress, egress, and evacuation.
• Fuel modification
• Water Supply
• Construction, location, and design of structures.
• Ignition potential

1. The FPAHJ shall approve the mitigating measures relative to access,

For subdivisions proposed in areas classified as High or Extreme Hazard Areas as defined in 7.1 and the risks and hazards are not modified to a lower hazard rating, the following standards shall apply:

• Road rights-of-way shall be cleared of construction slash. The

required clearance of the right-of-way shall be maintained, in

perpuity, in a fire-resistive state.

• All bridges and cattle guards shall be constructed of

• Subdivisions shall be designed to allow emergency vehicle

(2) To reduce the potential for a fire on improved

0. A copy of the site plan for the development.