Fuel
Vegetation type, amount, arrangement, continuity and moisture determine what can ignite and how much energy combustion can release.
Fire Maps field manual · 4 chapters
The wildfire encyclopedia
Understand how a vegetation fire behaves, what each family of firefighting aircraft can do, how air and ground operations fit together, and what the specialist terms on the map mean.
Educational reference only. During an incident, follow the emergency services, the authorities and the official alerts where you are.
Cross-reference file · quick answers
All encyclopedia answers
Each page answers in a few sentences first, then exposes the mechanisms, exceptions, limits and primary sources that make the answer verifiable.
Air operations · verifiable answer
Why are firefighting aircraft often inactive at night?
Darkness does not make an aircraft unable to fly. It mainly removes the outside references on which a low-level tactical pass depends, among terrain, smoke and a busy incident airspace.
Read the answerVisibility · smoke · waterNight removes references before it removes objects
An obstacle can remain present, close and completely real while becoming almost undetectable. The central problem is not only the amount of light: it is the loss of contrast, depth and a dependable horizon.
Read the answerADS-B · coverage and limitsA missing track is not an empty sky
An ADS-B map represents messages received by a network, decoded and then published. It is neither exhaustive radar nor a register of every mission in progress.
Read the answerSatellite · thermal observationA hotspot is an observation, not the fire boundary
Satellites provide a consistent view across large areas, but every detection carries the time, resolution, angle, cloud conditions and thresholds of the sensor that produced it.
Read the answerDrop · water · retardantA drop prepares a line; it does not replace ground crews
Product, target, height and pass continuity matter as much as volume. A dramatic drop image does not by itself show what effect was achieved.
Read the answerFire behavior · interactionWind, slope and fuel compose a path; none dictates it alone
Fire responds to local conditions that change over time. A regional wind arrow or danger color is not enough to describe the next movement of the front.
Read the answerReading method · evidenceStart with the sentence each layer can actually prove
Two overlaid colors can appear to tell the same story while coming from completely different times, sensors and methods.
Read the answer01
Chapter 01 · Fire behavior
Start with what makes the fire move
Wildfire is a moving combustion process, not a fixed object. Its edge changes as heat meets combustible vegetation, local weather and terrain.
The fire-behavior triangle
Fire behavior emerges from the interaction of fuel, weather and topography. Change one and the same ignition can produce a different spread rate, direction and intensity.
Weather
Wind, temperature, humidity, drought and atmospheric instability change fuel moisture, flame tilt, smoke movement and the potential for rapid spread.
Topography
Slope, aspect, valleys and ridges alter preheating, wind flow, access and escape routes. Fire often accelerates uphill, but local terrain can redirect it.
The fire-behavior triangle: No factor works alone. Wind can dry and tilt flames into continuous fuel; slope can preheat vegetation above the fire; a break in fuel can interrupt both effects.
Read the moving perimeter
A wind-driven fire is often described by its head, flanks and rear. Its shape keeps changing with fuels, relief and weather; this diagram is a reading aid, not a prediction.
- 1
Head
The most actively advancing part, commonly aligned with wind or upslope spread. It often has the greatest flame length and rate of spread.
- 2
Flanks
The sides between head and rear. They often spread less rapidly than the head and may offer opportunities to build from a secure anchor.
- 3
Rear
The portion opposite the head. It commonly advances more slowly, but it can remain hot and change behavior if wind or slope changes.
- 4
Spotting
Burning material transported ahead of the main edge can start separate spot fires and defeat an otherwise continuous control line.
Three statements that must not be confused
Potential · fire danger
A danger index describes how favorable conditions are for ignition and spread over an area. It does not say that a fire exists at a precise location.
Observation · thermal detection
A thermal hotspot is a sensor observation or algorithmic alert with a time, footprint and confidence. It is evidence of heat, not a surveyed fire boundary.
Geometry · mapped perimeter
A mapped perimeter describes an interpreted or surveyed edge at a stated time. The active front may already have moved, and smoke or resolution can hide detail.
02
Chapter 02 · Aerial resources
Five roles, different ways to help
The useful first question is not “which model is it?” but “which mission family is it flying?” The same platform can carry a bucket in one operation and a rescue team in another.
A family describes a usual capability, not the payload, equipment or task of an aircraft at this moment. Configuration, weather, terrain, visibility, water access and incident command decide what can actually be done.
Identify a fleet aircraft
Open the multilingual reference sheets for verified aircraft, grouped by country and mission with silhouettes, registrations, models and operators.
Night operations · safety margin
Why the fleet usually falls silent at night
Aircraft can fly at night. Aerial firefighting is different: scoops, approaches and drops are flown very low in a crowded, changing environment. Daylight is part of the ordinary safety margin.
Daylight
Usual aerial window
Dusk
Command reassesses each mission
Night
Ordinary fleet usually stands down
Dawn
Weather, fire and aircraft checked
Sunset is not a universal timer. Weather, terrain, smoke, crew fatigue, available aircraft and incident command may stop flights earlier or delay their return.
Smoke erases the outside picture
Firelight illuminates fragments, not a usable horizon. Smoke can hide terrain, columns and other aircraft between two bright zones.
Water loses its horizon
On a dark surface, only reflections remain visible. The shoreline, wave relief and floating obstacles can disappear—the cues a scooping run needs.
N-01
Very low, with little margin
To aim and then escape, crews must read terrain, trees, wires, the fire edge, smoke and the exit path in time. Darkness reduces contrast and depth cues, leaving less time to react.
N-02
Scooping combines water and speed
An amphibious tanker planes at speed over a long, clear water surface while taking on several tons in seconds. At night, height, waves, shorelines, boats and debris are much harder to judge.
N-03
Fire obscures the outside picture
Smoke can mask terrain and traffic, while fire columns, wind and mountain flow can change quickly. Darkness removes outside cues that help crews detect and interpret those changes.
N-04
Safety is collective
Coordination must sequence passes, keep aircraft separated, confirm that ground crews are clear and maintain a shared picture. Darkness raises the workload for every link, not only the pilot.
An exception is a complete capability
Some specially equipped helicopters can reconnoiter or drop water at night. That requires a compatible aircraft, crews qualified with night-vision goggles, mapped hazards, more extensive planning, reliable communications and a dedicated doctrine. Goggles do not reproduce the field of view, depth cues or detail of clear daylight.
- French Canadair and Dash fleet
- Daylight firefighting operations
- Dedicated night programs
- Selected qualified helicopters
Amphibious water bomber
It refills while skimming a suitable lake, river, or sea surface, then makes short water-drop rotations when a safe water source is close to the fire. It attacks flames directly with water or foam rather than laying long retardant lines.
- How it works
- Scoops from a suitable water surface without landing, climbs back to the incident, then releases water or foam directly on the fire edge or a nearby target.
- What limits it
- It needs enough unobstructed water, depth, surface length and safe approaches. Waves, boats, terrain, wind and distance can break the rapid rotation that makes it effective.
Representative types
- Canadair CL-215
- Canadair CL-415
- Air Tractor AT-802 Fire Boss
Canadair CL-415
ICAO type CL2TThe turboprop CL-415 family scoops about 6,000 litres in roughly 12 seconds and can divide the load between several doors. It is built for high-tempo direct attack when a safe lake, river, bay, or coastal scoop run is nearby.
Land-based air tanker
It loads water or retardant on the ground and attacks from a runway base. It can knock down flames with water or lay a retardant line ahead of the fire to slow its spread and support crews on the ground.
- How it works
- Loads water, foam or long-term retardant at an air base, transits quickly, and releases one controlled line or several split drops before returning to reload.
- What limits it
- Every load requires a runway, ground crew and turnaround. Base distance, visibility, wind, terrain and the safe escape path determine useful delivery, not tank capacity alone.
Representative types
- Air Tractor AT-802
- Dash 8-400AT
- PZL M-18
- Airbus A400M
Air Tractor AT-802
ICAO type AT8TThe land-based AT-802 is a nimble single-engine tanker that carries about 3,000 litres. It is suited to fast initial attack and accurate split or continuous drops of water, foam, or retardant, but must return to a base for each refill.
Dash 8-400AT / Q400MR
ICAO type DH8DThe converted Dash 8-400 combines airliner transit speed with a 10,000-litre constant-flow tank. It can reach distant fires quickly and lay a long, controlled water or retardant line before reloading on the ground.
Water-bombing helicopter
It uses a suspended bucket or an installed tank to take water from a nearby source and place short, precise drops, including in steep or confined terrain. Depending on its configuration, it may also move crews, equipment, or rescue teams.
- How it works
- Fills an external bucket or installed tank from a nearby source, then places short, accurate drops. Some platforms can switch to crew, cargo, rescue or reconnaissance work.
- What limits it
- Payload falls with heat and altitude. Smoke, wind, wires, terrain and rotor wash constrain the approach; a suspended bucket also changes handling and requires careful clearance.
Representative types
- Erickson S-64 Aircrane
- Airbus H125
- Kamov Ka-32
- Boeing CH-47
Erickson S-64 Aircrane
ICAO type S64The S-64 Aircrane is a purpose-equipped heavy helitanker with a tank of about 10,000 litres. A hover or sea snorkel can refill it in well under a minute, combining a large load with precise, repeatable drops.
Coordination and observation aircraft
It carries the observers and radios that organize the air operation. It locates and assesses the fire, identifies safe drop runs, separates aircraft in the incident airspace, and guides tankers; it normally carries no water or retardant.
- How it works
- Builds the common aerial picture, checks hazards and drop runs, sequences aircraft, keeps separation and relays the incident commander's priorities.
- What limits it
- It does not suppress the fire itself. Its value depends on communications, visibility, trained supervision and every pilot following the same airspace plan.
Representative types
- Beechcraft King Air 350
- Cessna 208 Caravan
- Partenavia P.68 Observer
Beechcraft King Air 360ER
ICAO type B350The King Air 350 combines speed, endurance, a pressurized cabin, and room for radios or sensors. It can cover a wide area, map and monitor the incident, and carry the team coordinating tankers and helicopters.
Rescue and support helicopter
It is tracked here for rescue and operational support, not as a dedicated water bomber. It can reconnoiter, insert or evacuate people, carry medical teams and equipment, and keep command connected when roads are slow or inaccessible.
- How it works
- Reconnoiters, carries rescue or medical teams, inserts or evacuates people, transports equipment and helps command reach places that roads cannot serve quickly.
- What limits it
- Rescue configuration does not imply a firefighting bucket or tank. Medical, hoist, crew and fuel loads compete for weight, and smoke or terrain may prevent access.
Representative types
- Airbus H145
- Leonardo AW139
- Bell 412
- Sikorsky S-70
Airbus H145 / EC145
ICAO type EC45The EC145 or H145 is a compact twin-engine rescue helicopter with a wide medical cabin and access to confined sites. Depending on its equipment, it can carry a medical team, use a rescue hoist, evacuate casualties, and support airborne command.
03
Chapter 03 · Suppression strategy
A drop is one action in a longer sequence
Suppression is a coordinated system. Aircraft can cool, slow, mark or observe, but a line becomes defensible only when command, crews and repeated assessment connect the actions.
Aircraft buy time and change local fire behavior; coordinated ground work converts that advantage into a line that can hold.
From first signal to a line that holds
A simplified sequence showing how evidence, command, aircraft and ground crews connect. Real incidents loop between stages as conditions change.
- 1
Detect and confirm
Calls, cameras, patrols and thermal sensors may reveal heat. Location, acquisition time and confidence must be checked before an alert becomes a working incident picture.
- 2
Build the shared picture
Crews and observers identify the head, flanks, spotting, access, people at risk, weather changes and the limits of each available resource.
- 3
Anchor the plan
Command selects objectives, safety zones, escape routes and a secure starting point so the fire cannot simply work around the beginning of the line.
- 4
Coordinate the aerial action
Air attack sequences runs, checks hazards and places water or retardant where it supports the selected objective while ground personnel remain clear.
- 5
Secure the line on the ground
Ground crews connect the treated area to a control line, extinguish heat near the edge and patrol for spot fires. This is what turns temporary slowing into containment.
- 6
Reassess and monitor
The perimeter, weather and remaining heat are checked again. A controlled fire can escape; an aircraft track or quiet image is never an all-clear.
Direct, parallel or indirect
Command chooses according to current and expected behavior, terrain, resources, values at risk and safe access. These are concepts, never instructions for the public.
Direct attack
Crews and aircraft work at or close to the burning edge. It is precise and avoids leaving unburned fuel inside the line, but requires behavior mild enough for safe access.
Parallel attack
A control line follows the fire edge from a short distance. It trades immediate contact for safer, straighter construction while the strip between line and fire is secured.
Indirect attack
A line is selected farther from the edge, often using roads, ridges or fuel breaks. It gives room against intense fire but leaves fuel between the fire and line that must be managed under command.
Cross-reference file · quick answers
What the map and the sky do not explain by themselves
A circling aircraft, a broken track or a lone red dot can seem to tell an obvious story. These eight answers separate what is observed from what can actually be concluded.
Red marks a tactical line
Long-term retardant is not dyed water. Its color helps crews connect passes into a visible line; some colorants later fade in sunlight.
AIR
Understand aerial operations
Why does an aircraft circle without dropping?
Short answer
Circling may be the mission, not hesitation.
The aircraft may be mapping the fire, checking smoke, terrain, wires and an escape path, coordinating traffic, or waiting for the target area to be clear and authorized. An orbit alone proves neither the aircraft’s role nor its mission.
Why can aircraft not extinguish a large wildfire by themselves?
Short answer
They buy time; ground crews turn that time into containment.
Water and retardant cool or slow a local area, but their effect can be bypassed, dry out or leave gaps. Crews must connect treated areas to a control line, extinguish hot spots and patrol for rekindling.
DROP
Read a drop
Why is the dropped product sometimes red?
Short answer
It is usually long-term retardant, not colored water.
Water cools immediately; foam or thickeners improve how it clings; long-term retardant acts on fuel even after some water evaporates. Its color lets crews see and connect areas already treated.
Why drop ahead of the fire instead of directly on the flames?
Short answer
Retardant prepares a line; it does not necessarily chase the flame.
A continuous line placed ahead of or along a flank makes fuel harder to ignite when the front arrives. Water is more often used for direct cooling. The target always depends on wind, terrain, intensity and the ground plan.
SAFE
Stay out of danger
Can people stay beneath a drop to watch it?
Short answer
No. The target area must be clear before the pass.
Several tonnes arrive with speed and downwash: the impact can throw branches, bring down trees or cause direct injury. Stay away from operations, never approach to film a pass and follow the authorities.
Why can a small recreational drone stop aerial operations?
Short answer
A tiny object is enough to create a collision risk at very low altitude.
Fire aircraft work close to terrain, often in smoke and with little margin. An uncoordinated drone is hard to see and its path is unknown; managers may suspend flights until the airspace is safe.
MAP
Interpret the map
Why does an aircraft suddenly disappear from the map?
Short answer
A public track can break even while the flight continues.
ADS-B depends on a usable position message and receivers able to hear it. Low altitude, terrain, coverage, equipment, source delay or processing can create a gap. No track never proves that no aircraft is present.
Does a red hotspot show the fire’s exact perimeter?
Short answer
No. It signals heat within a pixel observed at a particular time.
The marker represents a sensor pixel’s center or footprint, not the position of every flame. Cloud, dense smoke, canopy, fire size and the interval between satellite passes can hide activity; an official perimeter is a different product.
Continuity file · why a track breaks
Why a track appears, breaks or disappears
These trails are not a radar picture. They are rebuilt from position messages that aircraft broadcast, that volunteers on the ground happen to receive, and that are then clipped to the window and the filters you selected. Every link in that chain has a perfectly normal way of producing a hole, a shortened trail or an aircraft that is simply not there. The twelve cases below cover them all.
None of these cases is a malfunction. A trail that stops at the rim of a valley, a fleet that empties at midnight, an aircraft you can see overhead but not on screen: all of it is the expected behavior of an open, volunteer-fed data chain, and none of it means the map has stopped working.
Reading a break
A dashed segment is a hole, not a flight path
It joins the last position received to the next one, across everything that was not heard. The aircraft did fly in between; the shape of that flight is unknown, so it is drawn as an assumption rather than as a measurement.
Two trails with no link are two sorties
The absence of dashes means the feed marked a new departure: the aircraft was on the ground in between. The time between them is a turnaround, not a lost signal.
The absence of a trail proves nothing
It says only that no receiver heard that airframe during that window. Aerial firefighting can be in full swing over a fire that shows nothing here, and a trail that has just ended does not mean the aircraft has left.
EMIT
The aircraft and what it transmits
The aircraft is not one of the airframes followed here
On screen
An aircraft is visibly working the fire and no trail appears for it.
Why
This map follows a fixed catalog of firefighting airframes whose Mode-S address has been verified one by one. A guessed address would silently draw somebody else’s flight, so an aircraft is added only once its address is confirmed. Seasonal reinforcements, freshly contracted aircraft, foreign help arriving mid-season and anything flying outside the covered countries therefore leave no trail here.
The airframe broadcasts no usable position
On screen
A known aircraft never shows up, or shows up on some sorties only.
Why
ADS-B is transmitted by the aircraft itself; it is not measured from the ground. Some airframes — light helicopters above all — carry a transponder that answers radar without broadcasting its own position, some fleets are equipped only in part, and equipment can be selected late or fail outright. Nothing is emitted, so nothing can be drawn.
A landing splits one trajectory in two
On screen
A trail stops, and a separate one starts later somewhere else.
Why
The feed marks the beginning of every new sortie. Joining two sorties would draw a flight across the apron that never happened, so the map keeps them apart deliberately. Two trails with no dashed link between them mean the aircraft landed, was reloaded and took off again.
RECV
The volunteer receivers
Working altitude sits below the receivers’ horizon
On screen
The trail breaks precisely over the fire, where you want it most.
Why
These signals travel in a straight line, like light. An aircraft running a drop very low above a valley floor puts terrain between its antenna and every receiver around, and drops out until it climbs again. The most interesting minutes of a mission are also the hardest to receive, which is why that hole is drawn as a dashed line instead of being hidden.
Volunteer coverage is uneven
On screen
The same aircraft is continuous over one region and ragged over another.
Why
The network behind these trails is fed by privately owned receivers, wherever their owners happen to live. Cities and plains are covered densely; mountains, islands, thinly populated areas and open sea are not. A scooping circuit far out at sea can vanish completely between two passes.
The network hears the aircraft without being able to place it
On screen
The aircraft is reported as active elsewhere, and its trail is interrupted here.
Why
A message can carry the identity without a valid position, or an altitude measured against a reference the rest of the track does not use. Such points are discarded rather than plotted: an invented position, or a mixed altitude reference, would corrupt the drop and scooping detection built on the very same track.
VIEW
Your window and your filters
The window slides, and old flights leave through the back
On screen
A leg you were watching shortens, then disappears, though nothing happened.
Why
The map only draws what falls inside the window you selected. In live mode that window travels with the clock, so the oldest end of every trail is trimmed continuously. A window aligned on days empties at local midnight, which makes the whole fleet look as if it had left at once.
Past twenty-four hours, only what this server recorded exists
On screen
A long window shows less than a short one is showing right now.
Why
The public archive keeps a rolling day per aircraft and nothing more. Anything older comes from the archive this server writes for itself, continuously — so the reachable past grows with its uptime and can never cover time before it started. The depth actually available is displayed next to the window control.
Country, category and altitude filters remove segments
On screen
Aircraft, or pieces of trail, vanish right after a click in the panel.
Why
The country and category selectors decide which airframes are requested at all, and the altitude band filter keeps only the segments flown inside the chosen band. That filter also hides coverage gaps, on purpose: a gap carries no measured altitude, and showing it inside a band would present it as flight measured there.
FEED
The refresh chain
The map is a snapshot, refreshed at a deliberate pace
On screen
An aircraft you can hear overhead is not on screen yet.
Why
The upstream network is volunteer-run and is protected accordingly: one shared snapshot is rebuilt every forty-five seconds, browsers ask for it about once a minute, and a shared cache sits in front of all of it. Reality can therefore run a couple of minutes ahead of the screen. Reloading the page changes nothing — it is the same snapshot.
A single refresh cycle does not reach the whole fleet
On screen
The panel reports airframes that could not be checked, and some trails are a cycle old.
Why
Requests to the volunteer archive are spaced on purpose, so a full pass over several hundred airframes takes minutes and each cycle stops asking once its time budget is spent. Whatever was already held keeps being drawn — a slightly old trajectory beats an aircraft blinking out — and the airframes not reached are counted honestly and asked about in the following cycles.
A live position expires after ten minutes
On screen
The moving marker and its short tail fade out while the day’s trail stays.
Why
The live layer only claims what is current. A position nothing has confirmed for ten minutes stops being shown, and the short tail behind a moving aircraft shortens from the back rather than hanging on the map as a line to nowhere. The accumulated trail obeys the window instead, so the two can legitimately disagree.
04
Chapter 04 · Terms
Wildfire and aviation glossary
These definitions explain how Fire Maps uses each term. Operational doctrine and wording vary by jurisdiction; the official sources below remain authoritative.
A
- ADS-B
- Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast: an aircraft broadcasts identity, position and other flight data that ground receivers may collect; coverage is not guaranteed.
- Air attack
- The airborne supervision function that develops the aerial plan, coordinates aircraft and connects their work to incident command and ground operations.
- Air tanker
- A fixed-wing aircraft equipped to release water, foam or retardant; land-based tankers return to a runway base to reload.
- Amphibious water bomber
- A fixed-wing tanker able to alight on water or scoop a load while planing across a suitable water surface.
- Anchor point
- A secure place from which line construction begins, chosen to minimize the chance that the fire can work around the starting point.
B
- Backburn / tactical fire
- A deliberately ignited fire used by authorized specialists under command to consume fuel from a prepared line toward the wildfire; it is never a public self-protection technique.
C
- Containment
- The state in which a control line has been completed around the fire and associated spot fires, with a reasonable expectation that spread can be stopped.
- Control line
- A barrier used to contain or control a fire, combining natural breaks and constructed or treated edges from which fuel has been removed or altered.
D
- Direct attack
- Suppression work applied at or very near the burning edge, such as cooling flames and constructing line immediately behind the edge.
- Drop
- The controlled release of water, foam or retardant from an aircraft along a target selected within the aerial plan.
F
- Fire behavior
- The way a fire ignites, spreads and releases energy, including direction, rate of spread, flame length, intensity and spotting.
- Fire danger
- A rating of the potential for fire ignition, spread and difficulty of control under current or forecast conditions, not evidence of an active fire.
- Fire front
- The actively burning edge or part of the perimeter where the fire is advancing; it is not necessarily a single continuous line.
- Fire Weather Index (FWI)
- The Canadian Fire Weather Index system combines weather-derived codes and indices to describe fuel moisture and potential fire behavior; it does not detect fires.
- Flank
- Either side of a fire between its head and rear, named left or right when viewed from the rear toward the head.
- Fuel
- Any living or dead vegetation or other combustible material available to burn, described by its type, load, arrangement, continuity and moisture.
- Fuel break
- A natural or modified strip where vegetation is absent, reduced or changed to help slow fire spread and support suppression work.
H
- Head of the fire
- The portion of a fire perimeter spreading most rapidly, commonly downwind or upslope under the current conditions.
- Helicopter bucket
- A collapsible or rigid container suspended below a helicopter and filled from a water source; “Bambi Bucket” is a common trade name.
- Hover refill
- A helicopter refill performed while hovering, using a snorkel or pump to draw water into an installed tank without landing.
I
- Indirect attack
- Suppression work conducted away from the active edge, using a selected control line and, when authorized, managed fire to remove fuel between the line and wildfire.
L
- Lead plane
- A tactical aircraft that evaluates visibility, hazards and the drop path, then demonstrates or leads a safe run for an air tanker when required.
- Long-term retardant
- A long-term chemical mixture dropped mainly ahead of or beside a fire to reduce fuel flammability and help crews build or hold a control line.
M
- Mode-S
- A secondary-surveillance transponder mode identified by a 24-bit aircraft address. A Mode-S signal may be received without carrying a complete ADS-B position.
- Mop-up
- Work after the main spread is checked to extinguish or secure heat near the control line and reduce the chance of escape or rekindling.
O
- Observation orbit
- Repeated circling that may let an observation or coordination aircraft maintain a view and radio contact; a track pattern alone does not prove its purpose.
P
- Parallel attack
- Line construction a short distance from and roughly parallel to the fire edge, with the intervening fuel dealt with as conditions and command allow.
- Probable fire zone
- In Fire Maps, an area inferred from converging low-level aircraft activity. It is a clue for investigation, not an observed or official fire perimeter.
R
- Rate of spread
- The speed at which a fire edge advances, usually expressed as distance per unit of time and always dependent on direction and conditions.
S
- Scooping
- The high-speed water pickup made by an amphibious tanker while it planes across a sufficiently long, deep and unobstructed water surface.
- Spot fire
- A separate fire ignited outside the main perimeter by wind-carried embers or burning material.
T
- Thermal hotspot
- A satellite or sensor indication of anomalous heat within a footprint at a stated acquisition time; it may represent active fire but is not a precise perimeter.
W
- Wildfire
- An unplanned or uncontrolled fire burning vegetation, forest, scrub, grass or other land fuels and capable of spreading beyond its origin.
Reference desk
Official sources and further reading
The page synthesizes these official prevention, fire-behavior, aviation and terminology references. Local doctrine and incident command always take precedence.
- Ministère de la Transition écologiquePreventing forest firesFrench prevention, risk factors and public protective behavior.
- Météo-FranceForest weather and fire dangerWhat the public forest-weather danger level means — and what it does not mean.
- Sécurité civileAerial and ground resourcesFrench national aerial and ground resources for civil-security missions.
- U.S. Forest ServiceWildland fire behaviorResearch and teaching material about fuels, weather, terrain and fire behavior.
- National Interagency Fire CenterWildland firefighting aircraftOperational roles of lead planes, air-attack supervision and tanker coordination.
- National Wildfire Coordinating GroupGlossary of wildland fireStandard English-language wildland-fire terminology and definitions.
- Assemblée nationaleNight capability of France’s aerial fleetThe current fleet waits for daylight; the report distinguishes it from a future, specifically equipped heavy-helicopter capability.
- U.S. Department of the InteriorNight-vision helicopter qualificationThe extra planning, obstacle recognition, communications, escape-route and water-delivery competencies required for night firefighting.
- CAL FIRES-70i HAWK: a night-capable exceptionA purpose-built helicopter with advanced flight systems, specialized equipment and a separate night crew for aerial firefighting after dark.
- NASA FIRMSWhat an active-fire pixel meansPixel centers, observation times, confidence and spatial resolution behind MODIS active-fire detections.
- National Wildfire Coordinating GroupRetardant and water drop safetyWhy the target area must be clear and how the impact of water or retardant can seriously injure people.
- U.S. Forest ServiceWater, foam and long-term retardantComposition, persistence, colorants and environmental precautions for water, foam and long-term retardant.
- U.S. Department of the InteriorWhy private drones ground fire aircraftThe low-altitude collision risk created by private drones and why aerial wildfire missions may be suspended.
- Federal Aviation AdministrationCoverage limits of ADS-BHow altitude, terrain, equipment and receiver coverage limit public ADS-B position data.
A multilingual learning reference for reading the evidence and aerial response shown by Fire Maps.
Educational reference only. During an incident, follow the emergency services, the authorities and the official alerts where you are.