As Idaho’s wildfire activity increases, here are some common terms to know

Wildland firefighters engage in cold trailing while mopping up around the West Mountain Complex fires in Idaho on Aug. 26, 2024. Cold trailing is a method of controlling partly dead fire edges by carefully inspecting and feeling an area for heat, by hand. (Courtesy of U.S Forest Service/ InciWeb Information System)

In addition to smoke and fire, wildfire season can bring with it a new set of words and terms for the public to decipher as it navigates closure notices and evacuation orders that may change quickly.

From “containment,” to “complex,” to “fuels” and “torching” many of the terms wildfire officials and emergency responders use may be unfamiliar. That’s particularly true for visitors and people who are new to living in the West or in the “wildland urban interface,” which is another term fire officials and land managers use.

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Kerry G. Greene, an emergency-management specialist public information officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Forest Service, said helping people understand terminology is an important part of her job.

“We do get a lot of questions about terminology, and in the past that has prompted us to do social media posts with Q&As and put terms and glossaries online,” Greene said in a phone interview Wednesday. “And a lot of times it depends on the fire. There may be certain words being used more based on that operation that might come up.”

This month, Greene has been based near Cascade, serving as public information officer working on the West Mountain Complex fires, which include the Wolf Creek Fire, Boulder Fire, Snag Fire, Dollar Fire and Goat Fire.

Making sense of evacuation orders as Idaho’s wildfire activity increases

The Ready, Set, Go! program is used in Idaho and by the International Association of Fire Chiefs as a tiered response system to communicate evacuation orders to the public.

In simplest terms, there are three tiers.

• Ready: Notification of a threat. Start making plans to leave, decide where to go, make arrangements for pets or animals, make sure your vehicle has gas, and make arrangements for children, senior citizens or anyone with health conditions who may wish to evacuate before additional notifications. Monitor emergency alerts vigorously by listening to the news, radio or watching official social media posts from local emergency responders.
• Set: Pre-evacuation, be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. First responders and public information officers stressed that the “Set” notification may actually be the last notification people receive if conditions deteriorate rapidly and emergency responders are unable to notify everyone. People should load 72-hour survival kits and any belongings they are taking with them into their vehicles once they receive a Set notification, Valley County officials recommend . To prepare for evacuation, people should wear sturdy shoes and clothing that can help shield them from heat or flames, like long sleeve shirts and long pants
• Go!: Immediate evacuation.

Although Go! means immediate evacuation, Greene said people do not have to wait for “Go!” to leave. In an emergency it is possible for different geographic areas to quickly move between the different Ready, Set, Go! tiers with little notice.

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“It is OK to leave earlier in the ‘Set’ phase if you don’t want to feel like you are rushing,” Greene said. “If you do have time in the ‘Set’ phase, you can help prepare your home by closing doors and windows, leaving lights on and removing combustibles within 30 feet of your home.”

Leaving interior and exterior lights on when you leave can help firefighters see your home through the smoke, Greene said.

Although it may be tempting to try to stay and attempt to save property, Greene said it is important to follow emergency evacuation orders.

“‘Go!’ is immediate danger; it’s imminent at that point and it’s time to go,” Greene said. “ If you choose not to go at that point, emergency services may not be able to help you. There is no guarantee someone can help you if ‘Go!’ is issued and you choose not to go. You also don’t want to be a hindrance to emergency responders at that point, you don’t want to block access. There are a number of reasons why it is not a good idea, why it’s not worth it.”

Greene said emergency responders and federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture gives guidance to community leaders about wildfire threats and evacuation protocols, but it is the local county officials that actually issue the Ready, Set, Go! Evacuation orders. In response to wildfires this month, the Custer County Sheriff’s Office , Boise County Sheriff’s Office and Valley County Sheriff’s Office have been posting evacuation orders, road closures and fire updates on their Facebook pages. There is also a Wapiti Fire Information 2024  Facebook page that provides updates specifically for the Wapiti Fire, which is burning near Grandjean and Stanley.

Find definitions for some key wildfire terms

• Acre: A measurement of land area that is often used to describe the size of a wildfire. An acre is equal to 4,840 square yards. To visualize one acre, Greene recommends picturing a football field. A football field is a little bit bigger than an acre.
• Complex: Two or more incidents or wildfires in the same general area that are managed by a single incident commander or a unified command in order to improve efficiency or simplify management. For example, the Snag Fire and Boulder Fire are two separate fires that are both part of the West Mountain Complex fires burning outside of Cascade.
• Containment: A fuel break or control line that has been completed around the fire and any associated spot fires in order to stop the fire’s spread. Fire breaks or fire lines may  be manually constructed by firefighters scrapping, digging and cutting away fuels, or may be made of other man-made or natural features that can stop or slow a fire from spreading, like roads, trails or even boulders in some cases. Even when containment is achieved, a wildfire may still be actively burning within the perimeter, Greene said.
• Creeping: Fire behavior that is spreading slowly and characterized by low flames.
• Crew: An organized group of firefighters under the leadership of a crew boss or another designated official. There can be many different types of crews, including hand crews, helibase crews and hotshot crews, which are intensively trained fire crews used in handline construction. During a visit to the Boulder Fire earlier this month , fire officials told the Idaho Capital Sun it is common to see crews made up of 20 firefighters.
• Fire line: A linear fire line that is dug or scraped down to mineral soil. Greene said the idea behind a fire line is to clear away all fuels in order to stop the spread of a fire.
• Fuels : When discussing wildfire, fuels are basically anything in the forest that can burn and feed a fire. That includes vegetation, trees, plants, grass, leaves, litter and other combustible materials.
• Perimeter, or fire perimeter : The entire outer edge or boundary of a fire. When they are depicted on maps, wildfires often create a shape or a polygon, Greene said.
• Suppression : All of the work of extinguishing or containing a fire
• Torching : Fire behavior that is defined as the burning or ignition of a single tree or a group of trees, from the ground up.
• Uncontrolled fire : Any fire that threatens to destroy life, property or natural resources and is not burning within the confines of a fire break or is burning with such intensity that it cannot be extinguished by ordinary tools.
• Wildland urban interface : An area where homes, structures or other human developments meet or intermingle with undeveloped wild lands or vegetation fuels.

Sources: National Wildfire Coordinating Groups Glossary of Wildland Fire, InciWeb incident information glossary , emergency-management specialist public information officer Kerry G. Greene.

Helpful resources for understanding wildfire terminology

The National Wildfire Coordinating Groups Glossary of Wildland Fire includes more than 2,000 different terms. The list is searchable, and rather than scrolling through thousands of terms, people can enter terms they want to define on the website’s search box.

The InciWeb Incident Information System also includes an alphabetized list of wildfire terminology .

Helpful resources for information about smoke and air quality

• The website AirNow.gov features the U.S. Air Quality Index. Members of the public can enter their ZIP Code, city or state to learn more about the air quality in their area on a given day.  Fire and smoke maps are also available.
• The Idaho Smoke Information Blog at www.idsmoke.blogspot.com includes information from state agencies, counties, tribes and federal agencies about air quality and Idaho communities affected by wildfire smoke.
• The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality includes local information about air quality online .
• The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare posts resources about wildfire smoke and tips for staying healthy during wildfire smoke online.

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