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2009 Bushfire Jargon Glossary

MECC
Municipal Emergency Coordination Centre
This is a communication area set up in a Municipal Office and usually contains officers from the following services:-
Local Council, Police, SES, Fire Service, Ambulance, and any others that may be necessary. These people liase together to control all aspects of what is going on in the vicinity of and after the fire (not actual fire fighting). They are responsible for the logistics of looking after evacuees, providing food transport, and other services as requested by the Officers in the ICC.

MERO
Municipal Emergency Response Officer.
This is a person who is likely to be an employee of the Local Council and would work in the MECC to coordinate all Council equipment employees and helpers.

RECC
Regional Emergency Coordination Centre

ICC
Incident Control Centre
This Centre is staffed by senior fire fighters who make decisions on how the fire is to be fought or defended. They communicate directly with the fire fighters at the fire front and the MECC. These people control fire trucks, strike teams, bull dozers, graders, heli-tankers and they are responsible for putting the fire out or getting it under control. ICCs are extremely noisy, busy environments where multiple radios are going simultaneously. Headphones are not an option as the DSE/CFA Controllers want to be able to listen in if they feel the need. Despite all this, accurate message handling and concise voice procedure are absolutely required!

Tanker
A CFA fire truck.
This vehicle has pumping equipment and carries its own water and is what we know as a typical CFA fire truck. Typically 3000 litres or more

Pumper
Typically a "town" fire truck, intended to pump from a reticulated water source

Slipper or Slipon
Small DSE fire truck.
This vehicle is based on a Toyota four wheel drive ute and they slip on to the back of it a tank and fire pump. This is where it gets its name.

Pig
Small fire truck.
This vehicle is very similar to a slipper except that the water tank itself is a large bladder that is strapped to the back of the 4WD. This bladder looks a bit like a pig lying down on the truck and that is how it gets its name.

Piglet
A small Pig

Appliance or Unit
A tanker, pumper or slipon

Quickfill
A portable high-flow pump used to quickly fill tankers or pigs from an available water source. Usually trailer-mounted.

Bigfill
There is now a vehicular unit coming into service that does the same as a Quickfill but handles a very high volume of water and can fill two tankers at same time. Has a two man crew and a large diesel pump on board which can be driven into a fill position rather than a trailer or hand carried pump unit. These are a 4WD tray unit like LandRover Defender or Toyota Land Cruiser

Collar Tank
A Portable rubber water tank taken into the fire ground and kept filled by tankers so that fire trucks/slip-ons can fill up from a local source as needed.

StrikeTeam (abbreviated to ST)
A group of fire fighters
This would normally be a group led by a Strike Team Leader and would consist of approximately 6-10 trucks and 30-40 firemen.

Stag
A standing burnt tree.
As the fire passes many trees catch fire and are left burning. These trees with their ghost like branches resemble the horns of a stag and as such they are called stags. In the blacking out most of these need to be felled and put out.

Candle or Roman Candle
A hollow tree which is burning inside and venting sparks & embers high in the air

Smoker
A stag which is creating a column of smoke

Portable (in the context of a radio callsign)
Operating from a handheld unit as distinct from the vehicle radio

Blacking Out
To put the fire out totally.
After the fire is passed there are many hot spots, burning stumps, burning stags, and sometimes burning tree roots that need to be put out to prevent the next strong wind carrying sparks to a fresh fire ground.

Spot Fire
This is a fire that occurs hundreds of meters (sometimes km) in front of the main fire caused by embers blowing from the main fire.

D8 or D9
A large bull dozer.

Float
Low loader used to transport heavy machinery from point to point

Walk
Driving a Dozer from one point to another (usually a relatively short distance)

Aerial ID
Number painted on a fire vehicle to be visible by aircraft

T CARDS - Yellow
Record of personnel on a vehicle, the vehicles registration and aerial ID

T-CARDS - Blue
Compilation of the info from the Yellow T-Cards in a strike team.

Point Of Origin (POO)
Point at which a fires started

MINERAL EARTH
A ribbon of earth made by a grader or a RAKEHOE team scratching back all fine fuels and grasses down to the natural earth.

RED FLAG WARNING
Message may be sent by radio or runner and is intended to alert ALL people on the fire ground of an impending weather change or other safety matter. Such messages MUST be passed down to the lowest level person, then acknowledged all the way back to originator.

FIRE DANGER INDEX or FDI
Used extensively to tell recipient the degree of danger or threat from a fire within the area or forest. Its defined as a "Relative number denoting an evaluation of rate of spread, or suppression difficulty for specific combinations of fuel, fuel moisture and wind speed."

CODE ONE
Appliance is to respond to an incident using lights and/or sirens.

CODE THREE
Travel under normal road conditions, no lights or sirens.

RFS
(NSW) Rural Fire Service

CFS
(SA) Country Fire Service

FCU
Forward Communications Unit -(Mostly ACT) a command vehicle or unit used to facilitate comms on the fireline - also FCV for the vehicle.

Div Com
Divisional Commander

GCom or GC
Group Commander

IAP
Incident Action Plan (made usually twice a day)

TIC
Thermal Imaging Camera (usually refers to a team)

Bomber
Fixed wing water bomber (e.g. crop duster)

Bird Dog
Guides Helitaks to target

Helitak
Helicopter with water (EG Elvis or bucket)

Firebird
Aerial Spotter

Firescan
Fire Line scanning by air

CTAF
(radio) Common Traffic Area Frequency - Aviation term for a required comms channel Air to Air and Air to Ground for a specific geographic area.

UNICOM
(radio) (Aviation Term) refers to 126.700 which is a default CTAF at many unlicensed aerodromes