There is often confusion about the many terms used in firefighting. They often vary between States but are outlined in the AFAC glossary. Here are just a few.
https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/glossary/?wordOfTheDay
Fuel Reduction Burning. The planned application of fire to reduce hazardous fuel quantities, undertaken under prescribed environmental and fuel conditions within defined boundaries. (AKA Planned burning, controlled burning, prescribed burning, hazard reduction burning, patch burning, mosaic burning and cultural burning). Often confused with backburning.
Backburn. A fire started intentionally along the inner edge of a fireline during indirect attack operations to consume fuel in the path of a bushfire. Also used a last resort control strategy and very high risk which requires great skill, courage and an element of good fortune.
Burning Out. A fire set to consume islands of unburnt fuel inside the fire perimeter and between the fire edge and fireline.
Backing Fire. The part of a fire which is burning back against the wind or down slope, where the flame height and rate of spread are reduced.
Blacking Out. The process of extinguishing or removing burning material along or near the fire control line, felling stags, trenching logs to prevent rolling and the like, to make the fire safe.
Breakaway. The points at which a fire, after it has been contained, escapes into unburnt areas across a fireline or fire edge.
Bushfire An unplanned fire. A generic term which includes grass fires, forest fires and scrub fires both with and without a suppression objective. (preferred over “wildfire” which is more an American term)
Direct Attack. A method of fire attack where wet or dry firefighting techniques are used. It involves suppression action right on the fire edge which then becomes the fireline.
Dry Firefighting. The suppression of a fire without the use of water. This is normally achieved by removing the fuel with hand tools, burning or machinery.
Edge Burning. Perimeter burning of an area in mild conditions prior to large scale prescribed burning. This practice is used to strengthen buffers and to reduce mop-up operations.
Fall back control line. Any fire control line which is at a distance from the fire perimeter and is the second control line at which the fire perimeter may be stopped should it cross the first fire control line. Also known as ‘fallback line’.
Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI). A relative number denoting the potential rates of spread, or suppression difficulty for specific combinations of temperature, relative humidity, drought effects and wind speed. Developed by Alan McArthur from the CSIRO in the 1960s.
Fireline. A natural barrier like a ridge or stream, or a constructed barrier like a road or track, or treated or burnt fire edge, used in fire suppression and prescribed burning to limit the spread of fire. (AKA Control line, hand trail, dozer line, dead edge, tie in point))
Fire Intensity. The rate of energy release per unit length of fire front usually expressed in kilowatts per metre (Kw/m). A function of available fuel quantity, Rate of Spread (ROS) and weather conditions like temperature, Relative Humidity (RH) and wind.
Fire Regime – described as the long-term cycles and patterns of fire intensity, fire frequency, spatial arrangement (patchiness) and season the year when burning occurs.
Fuel. Any material such as grass, leaf litter and live vegetation which can be ignited and sustains a fire. Fuel is usually measured in tonnes per hectare. Related Terms: available fuel, coarse fuel, dead fuel, elevated dead fuel, fine fuel, surface fuels, and total fine fuel.
Fuel Arrangement. The spatial arrangement of fuel. Flammable bark and highly aeriated ladder fuels with a strong vertical arrangement can have a greater impact on fire behaviour than overall fuel quantity (tonnes /ha).
Indirect Attack A method of suppression in which the control line is located some 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 fuel breaks and favourable breaks in the topography. The intervening fuel is usually backburnt; but occasionally the main fire is allowed to burn to the line, depending on conditions.
Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI). A numerical value reflecting the dryness of soils, deep forest litter, logs and living vegetation, and expressed as a scale from 0 – 200 where the number represents the amounts of rainfall (mm) to return the soil to saturation.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 