The American Sign Language Glossary
Deaf and hard of hearing populations have historically struggled to gain access to information in their daily lives. This struggle is intensified during disasters and emergencies. This American Sign Language (ASL) glossary aims to increase that access by defining terminology that certified ASL interpreters will use when delivering emergency information to the public during a disaster. The videos feature Certified Deaf Interpreters Shelley Herbold and Beca Bailey, who are qualified interpreters under the Emergency Response Interpreter Credentialing (ERIC) Program.
The Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA) created the ASL glossary of emergency management terminology through a grant from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Advisory, Watch, Warning
Advisory: Highlights special weather conditions that are less serious than a warning. They are for events that may cause significant inconvenience and if caution is not exercised, it could lead to situations that may threaten life and/or property. Watch: The environmental conditions are such that an extreme weather event (extreme heat, tornado, thunderstorm, flooding, etc.) *may* occur and residents in the watch area should get prepared just in case. Warning: An extreme weather event *is occurring* and residents should take immediate action (shelter in place, evacuate, etc.).
All Hazard Incident
An incident, natural or human-caused, that requires an organized response by a public, private, and/or governmental entity to protect life, public health and safety, values to be protected, and to minimize any disruption of governmental, social and economic services. One or more kinds of incident (fire, flood, mass casualty, search, rescue, evacuation, etc.) may occur simultaneously as part of an all-hazard incident response.
Burden, Capacity
Burden: Resources required to address an emergency or disaster situation; Capacity: An organization's ability to meet the burden required to address an emergency or disaster situation.
Contingency Plan
A back-up plan of action when actions described in the primary plan are no longer appropriate.
Emergency, Disaster
Emergency: Any event that can adversely impact the health and safety of people or property; Disaster: A sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life.
Emergency Communications
Any action to inform citizens about a potential threat and/or ask for them to take protective actions.
Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
A pre-designated facility established by an agency or jurisdiction to coordinate the overall agency or jurisdictional response and support to an emergency.
Evacuation
An organized, phased and supervised withdrawal, dispersal, or removal of civilians from dangerous or potentially dangerous areas, and their reception and care in safe areas.
Evacuation Shelter
An Evacuation Shelter serves the general population in an existing facility (or facilities), such as a school, community center, convention center, or church that has been temporarily converted for use as a shelter for disaster survivors. The shelter will meet the basic life-sustaining needs of shelter residents until the threat has passed (typically 72 hours or less), or until shelter residents transfer or transition to a Short-Term Shelter. Services typically include: basic food items or snacks, hydration, basic medical care, sanitation, and disaster-related information.
Incident Management Team
"An Incident Management Team (IMT) provides on-scene incident management support during incidents or events that exceed a jurisdiction's or agency’s capability or capacity. Teams include members of local, state, tribal and territorial entities; Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO); and private sector organizations. Teams encompass various agencies and jurisdictions. 1. Deploys to manage emergency responses, incidents, or planned events requiring a higher capability or capacity level than the requesting jurisdiction or organization can provide 2. Assists with incident management activities during all-hazards events, including natural and human-caused events, as well as planned events 3. Assumes management of the incident for the requesting jurisdiction or agency, or supports a local Incident Commander (IC) or Unified Command and its IMT in managing an incident or event 4. Directs tactical resources that the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) and other supporting organizations provide 5. Coordinates with Emergency Operations Center (EOC) personnel regarding incident management objectives and support 6. Typically supports incident management activities of a corresponding incident complexity; for example, a Type 2 IMT typically supports a Type 2 incident 7. Has short- and long-team configurations; long-team configurations include additional positions and capabilities to meet an incident's needs based on results of a complexity analysis"
Joint Information System (JIS), Joint Information Center (JIC)
Joint Information System: A structure that integrates incident information and public affairs into a cohesive organization designed to provide consistent, coordinated, accurate, accessible, timely, and complete information during crisis or incident operations. The mission of the Joint Information System is to provide a structure and system for developing and delivering coordinated interagency messages. Joint Information Center: A facility established to coordinate critical emergency information, crisis communications and public affairs functions. The Joint Information Center is the central point of contact for all news media. The Public Information Officer may activate the JIC to better manage external communication.
Jurisdiction (All Hazard Incidents)
The range or sphere of authority. Public agencies have jurisdiction at an incident related to their legal responsibilities and authority for incident mitigation. Jurisdictional authority at an incident can be political/geographical (e.g., city, county, state or federal boundary lines), or functional (e.g., police department, health department, etc.).
Mitigation
Those activities implemented prior to, during, or after an incident which are designed to reduce or eliminate risks to persons or property that lessen the actual or potential effects or consequences of an incident. Mitigation measures can include efforts to educate governments, businesses, and the general public on measures they can take to reduce loss and injury and are often informed by lessons learned from prior incidents.
Preparedness
1. Activities that lead to a safe, efficient, and cost-effective fire management program in support of land and resource management objectives through appropriate planning and coordination. 2. Mental readiness to recognize changes in fire danger and act promptly when action is appropriate. 3. The range of deliberate, critical tasks, and activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to protect against, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents.
Ready, Set, Go
READY – Prepare Now! Be aware of the hazards that can threaten your community. Register with your county/tribal emergency notification system. Connect with your Emergency Management/Sheriff’s Office on social media. Take steps now to prepare for seasonal threats. Make a family communication plan that includes family phone numbers, out-of-town contacts and family meeting locations. Assemble an emergency supplies kit (Go Kit). Start with the five P’s; people and pet supplies, prescriptions, papers, personal needs and priceless items. Check with your neighbors, family, friends, and elders to ensure they are READY. Keep up to date on local news, weather watches and warnings. SET – Be Alert! There is significant danger in your area. Residents should consider voluntarily relocating to a shelter or with family/friends outside the affected area. Grab your emergency supplies kit. Keep in mind unique needs for your family or special equipment for pets and livestock. Stay aware of the latest news and information from public safety officials. This might be the only notice you receive. Emergency services cannot guarantee they will be able to notify everyone if conditions rapidly deteriorate. Be SET to GO. GO! – Evacuate! Danger in your area is current and life threatening. Residents should evacuate immediately to a shelter or with family/friends outside of the affected area. If you choose to ignore this advisement, you must understand emergency services may not be able to assist you further. Follow instructions from emergency personnel, stay on designated evacuation routes and avoid closed areas.
Recovery
Encompasses both short-term and long-term efforts for the rebuilding and revitalization of affected communities. Examples: Short-term recovery focuses on crisis counseling and restoration of lifelines such as water and electric supply, and critical facilities. Long-term recovery includes more permanent rebuilding.
Response
Activities that address the short-term, direct effects of an incident. Response includes immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs. Response also includes the execution of emergency operations plans and of mitigation activities designed to limit the loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and other unfavorable outcomes. As indicated by the situation, response activities include applying intelligence and other information to lessen the effects or consequences of an incident; increased security operations; continuing investigations into nature and source of the threat; ongoing public health and agricultural surveillance and testing processes; immunizations, isolation, or quarantine; and specific law enforcement operations aimed at preempting, interdicting, or disrupting illegal activity, and apprehending actual perpetrators and bringing them to justice. Examples: Lockdown, shelter-in-place, evacuation of students, search and rescue operations, fire suppression, etc.
Shelter in Place
This is a precaution aimed to keep you safe while remaining indoors. (This is not the same thing as going to a shelter in case of a storm.) Shelter-in-place means selecting a small, interior room, with no or few windows, and taking refuge there. It does not mean sealing off your entire home or office building.
Situational Awareness
An ongoing process of gathering information by observation and by communication with others. This information is integrated to create an individual's perception of a given situation.
Backfiring
A tactic associated with indirect attack, intentionally setting fire to fuels inside the control line to slow, knock down, or contain a rapidly spreading fire. Backfiring provides a wide defense perimeter and may be further employed to change the force of the convection column. Intended to change the direction of the fire.
Brush Fire
A fire burning in vegetation that is predominantly shrubs, brush, and scrub growth.
Burn Out Operations
Setting fire inside a control line to consume fuel between the edge of the fire and the control line. Prevents the fire from growing and potentially jumping the control line.
Burnover
An event in which a fire moves through a location or overtakes personnel or equipment where there is no opportunity to utilize escape routes and safety zones, often resulting in personal injury or equipment damage.
Containment
The status of a wildfire suppression action signifying that a control line has been completed around the fire, and any associated spot fires, which can reasonably be expected to stop the fire’s spread.
Control Line
An inclusive term for all constructed or natural barriers and treated fire edges used to control a fire.
Creeping (Ground Fire)
Fire burning with a low flame and spreading slowly.
Crown Fire
A fire that advances from top to top of trees or shrubs more or less independent of a surface fire.
Deep Seated Fire
A fire burning far below the surface in duff, mulch, peat, or other combustibles as contrasted with a surface fire.
Defensible Space
The buffer you create between a building on your property and the grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surround it. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it protects your home from catching fire—either from direct flame contact or radiant heat. Defensible space is also important for the protection of the firefighters defending your home.
Drone
Fireline constructed by the front blade of a dozer.
Dozer Line
Fireline constructed by the front blade of a dozer.
Engine
Any ground vehicle providing specified levels of pumping, water, and hose capacity.
Escape Fire
Fire that unexpectedly spreads from a planned or prescribed fire.
Extreme Fire Behavior
"Extreme" implies a level of fire behavior characteristics that ordinarily precludes methods of direct control action. One or 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.
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 Benefits
Fire effects with positive monetary, social, or emotional value or that contribute, through changes in the resource base, to the attainment of organizational goals.
Fire Effects
The physical, biological, and ecological impacts of fire on the environment.
Fire Environment
The surrounding conditions, influences, and modifying forces of topography, fuel, and weather that determine fire behavior.
Fire Management Objective
Planned, measurable result desired from fire protection and use based on land management goals and objectives.
Fire Prevention
Activities such as public education, community outreach, law enforcement, engineering, and reduction of fuel hazards that are intended to reduce the incidence of unwanted human-caused wildfires and the risks they pose to life, property or resources.
Fire Retardant
Any substance except plain water that by chemical or physical action reduces flammability of fuels or slows their rate of combustion.
Fire Risk
The chance of fire starting, as determined by the presence and activity of causative agents.
Fire Scar
1. A healing or healed injury or wound to woody vegetation, caused or accentuated by a fire. 2. The mark left on a landscape by fire.
Fire Season
1. Period(s) of the year during which wildland fires are likely to occur, spread, and affect resources values sufficient to warrant organized fire management activities. 2. A legally enacted time during which burning activities are regulated by federal, state or local authority.
Fire Suppression
All work and activities connected with control and fire-extinguishing operations, beginning with discovery and continuing until the fire is completely extinguished.
Flammable
Easily ignitable and capable of burning and producing flames.
Forward Progress
Forward progress refers to the movement of a wildfire. "Forward progress was stopped," is a term you will see often, meaning the fire is no longer spreading. It does not mean the fire is contained.
Fuel Load
Forward progress refers to the movement of a wildfire. "Forward progress was stopped," is a term you will see often, meaning the fire is no longer spreading. It does not mean the fire is contained.
Fuel Management
Reducing the availability of fuels to feed a wildfire.
Fuel Reduction or Treatment
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 Treatment: Reduction or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of a fire starting and/or to lessen potential damage and resistance to control (e.g., lopping, chipping, crushing, piling and burning).
Jurisdiction (fire incident)
The federal, tribal or state authority responsible for management of a wildfire.
Mop Up
Extinguishing or removing burning material near control lines or the interior of a suppressed fire.
Mitigation
Those activities implemented prior to, during, or after an incident which are designed to reduce or eliminate risks to persons or property.
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.
Pile Burn
Piling slash resulting from logging or fuel management activities and subsequently burning the individual piles.
Point of Origin
The location where a fire started.
Prescribed Fire
Any fire ignited by management actions to meet specific objectives.
Rehabilitation
Efforts undertaken within three years of a wildland fire to repair or improve fire damaged lands unlikely to recover to a management approved conditions or to repair or replace minor facilities damaged by fire.
Resources
Personnel, equipment, services and supplies available, or potentially available, for assignment to incidents.
Run (of a Fire)
1. Rapid advance of the head of a fire, characterized by a marked transition in fireline intensity and rate of spread with respect to that noted before and after the advance. 2. Behavior of a fire spreading rapidly with a well defined head.
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 fuelbreaks; they are greatly enlarged areas which can be used with relative safety by firefighters and their equipment in the event of blowup in the vicinity.
Scratch Line
An unfinished preliminary control line hastily established or constructed as an emergency measure to check the spread of fire.
Slopover
A fire edge that crosses a control line or natural barrier intended to confine the fire.
Smoke
Spot Fire (or Spotting)
Behavior of a fire producing sparks or embers that are carried by the wind and which start new fires beyond the zone of direct ignition by the main fire.
Values to be Protected
Include property, structures, physical improvements, natural and culture resources, community infrastructure, and economic, environmental, and social values.
Wildfire (Wildland Fire)
An unplanned, unwanted wildland fire including unauthorized human-caused fires, escaped wildland fire use events, escaped prescribed fire projects, and all other wildland fires where the objective is to put the fire out.
Fire Potential
The likelihood of a wildland fire event measured in terms of anticipated occurrence of fire(s) and management's capability to respond. Fire potential is influenced by a sum of factors that includes fuel conditions (fuel dryness and/or other inputs), ignition triggers, significant weather triggers, and resource capability.
Run (of a Fire)
Rapid advance of the head of a fire, characterized by a marked transition in fireline intensity and rate of spread with respect to that noted before and after the advance. 2. Behavior of a fire spreading rapidly with a well defined head.
Flash Fuels
Highly combustible fine fuels such as grass, leaves, draped pine needles, fern, tree moss and some kinds of slash, which ignite readily and are consumed rapidly when dry.
This page is under development.
Vaccination, Immunization
Vaccination: A medication or shot given to a person or animal to protect from a disease. Immunization: immunity or protection from a specific illness resulting from a vaccination or an individual having had and recovered from the disease.
Transmit/Transmission
Spread, pass to others
Toxic
Poisonous
Screening
Testing or checking to see if a person is healthy or sick
Risk Factor
Anything that makes it more likely, is the reason for, or increases the chance a person or group of people will get sick, hurt, or die. People’s beliefs and attitudes, what they do and don’t do, where they live and work, their age, and family health history are some of the reasons people are more or less likely to develop health problems.
Risk Assessment
Quiz, questionnaire, or other method to find out a person’s or group’s chances of having a health problem
Preventable
Measures can be taken to avoid a given illness or situation from occurring
Prevalent
Disease or condition that is widespread or common in a given region or community
Prevalence
Number or percentage of people with a sickness or condition
Morbidity
Sickness; co-morbidity - multiple sicknesses/illnesses in the same person
Intervention
Actions, treatments, programs, etc. intended to assist members of the community or the community as a whole
Infectious or Communicable Disease
Sicknesses caused by germs, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, that enter the body and grow in number; some of these germs spread from one person to another, and some spread in air, water, food, soil, insects or animals.
Infection
When germs enter the body and cause illness
Incubation Period
Time elapsed between a person being infected (when the germ enters the person’s body) and the first signs of sickness
Incidence Rate
How often an event happens in a group of people in a certain period of time.
Immune System
Body’s natural defenses against germs and sickness, body’s ability to fight germs and sickness
Health Disparities
Differences in health among groups of people.
Hazardous
Not safe, dangerous, harmful, bad, risky
Exposure
Openness or closeness to or not protected from something that can cause harm or sickness; chance of getting sick or being harmed; contact with a chemical by swallowing, breathing, or touching.
Evidence Based
Uses facts, data, evidence, scientific studies, and other objective or scientifically derived information; tested; shown to work; proven to work
Endemic, Epidemic, Pandemic
Endemic: illness withint a particular population, environment, or region. Examples of endemic diseases include chicken pox that occurs at a predictable rate among young school children in the United States and malaria in some areas of Africa. Epidemic: An outbreak of disease that attacks many peoples at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities. Pandemic: When an epidemic spreads throughout the world.
Disease Registry or Registry
A collection of information or list about a group of people with a specific sickness; system for recording or tracking specific sicknesses
Contagious
When germs have the ability to spread from a person or animal to another person or animal
Contact
Proximity to or interaction with a person who is or was sick
Community Immunity
A situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and those with chronic illnesses) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community. Also known as herd immunity.
Chronic Disease, Illness, or Condition
A type of sickness that goes on for a long time and often doesn’t go away completely. People’s symptoms may be better or worse over time, and they may use treatments to control symptoms and feel better.
Carcinogen
Something that causes cancer
Bacteria, Virus
Bacteria: 1) tiny one-celled organisms present throughout the environment that require a microscope to be seen. While not all bacteria are harmful, some cause disease.; 2) germs or “bugs” that can infect people, animals, plants, other living things, soil, water, and other parts of the environment; germs that grow and can cause sickness; we can treat these sicknesses with medicines called antibiotics. Virus: germs that need a host, which is a living thing, such as people, animals, or plants, to survive. The germs get into a cell, take it over, and force it to copy the germs so they increase in number and spread through the body.
Air Quality
The composition of air with respect to quantities of pollution therein; used most frequently in connection with "standards" of maximum acceptable pollutant concentrations. Used instead of "air pollution" when referring to programs.
Agent Biological or Chemical
A natural or living thing (biologica) or chemical that can cause an event or result such as disesase, illness, or death
Adverse Events
Possible side effect or reaction after getting a shot or taking medicine
This page is under development.
Atmospheric Relief Valve
A valve which serves to reduce pressure in a steam generator by allowing steam to be relieved to the atmosphere. The released steam is not radioactive.
Central Alarm System
The central location from which plant security activities are monitored and controlled. Like the control room, the central alarm station is continuously manned.
Circulating Water System
A cooling water system that removes excess heat from the main condenser by continuously supplying cooled water from a cooling tower, river or lake to the main condenser and returning the heated water to a cooling tower, river or lake.
Cold Shutdown
A plant condition in which the reactor is shut down (sub-critical) and the reactor coolant temperature is below the boiling point.
Condenser
A component which serves to condense steam back into water so that the water can be reused. The main condenser serves to condense the steam exhausted from the main turbine so that it can be pumped back to the steam generators for reheating and conversion back to steam.
Containment Barriers
Fuel pellets contain radiation. There are three levels/barriers of containment that prevent radiation from being released: fuel cladding/rods, reactor coolant (water), and the containment building. The first barrier is the fuel rod/cladding, which contains the radioactive fuel pellets. A "loss of fuel cladding/first barrier" occurs if there is damage to the cladding that may result in a release of radiation into the reactor coolant system. A "loss of the reactor coolant system/second barrier" occurs if radioactive steam is released from the Reactor Pressure Valve or radioactive coolant water leaks from the Reactor Vessel. A "loss of containment/third barrier" occurs if radioactive steam is relased from the containment building's relief valve.
Containment Integrity
A condition in which the containment structure is intact and all systems which operate to ensure its effectiveness as a fission product barrier are functional.
Contamination, Decontamination
Contamination - The deposition of unwanted radioactive material on the surfaces of structures, areas, objects, or people where it may be external or internal. Decontamination - the reduction or removal of radioactive contamination from a structure, object, or person; decontamination showers use tap water at high pressure with a lot of soap, and shower must last for a minimum of 15 minutes.
Control Room
The central location from which the plant is operated, monitored and controlled. The control room is equipped with the instrumentation and alarms necessary to continually assess the status of the reactor plant. The control room is continuously manned.
Critical
In reference to the reactor, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that releases energy. During normal plant operations the reactor is 'critical'.
Emergency Action Level
The specific events or symptoms that would signal to station personnel that an emergency is taking place are called Emergency Action Levels (EALs). Once a particular EAL has been reached, the Emergency Plan and related procedures specify what kinds of responses are necessary. The level of this response is based on how seriously the condition threatens plant and public safety, so it is called a graded response. Unusual Event: A low level event which poses no threat to public safety but which warrant an increased awareness on the part of plant and off-site agency personnel. Degradation of plant conditions is not expected. Alert: Also a low level condition which poses no threat to public safety, but for which precautionary staffing of the Emergency Facilities is appropriate in case conditions degrade. Site Area Emergency (SAE): Actual or likely failure of plant functions needed to mitigate events. Conditions have degraded to a point beyond those expected for plant design. General Emergency: Conditions have degraded to a point threatening public safety and for which some form of protective actions will likely be initiated.
Hot Spot
Any place where the level of radioactive contamination is considerably greater than the area around it.
Irradiated Fuel, Refueling
Irradiated Fuel: A fuel assembly which has been involved in the fission process and is no longer effectively producing energy, but is still radioactive. Also known as "spent fuel". Refueling: The reactor is shutdown with reactor coolant temperature below 210° F and the reactor coolant system is open (reactor vessel head removed) to allow for irradiated fuel to be removed and new fuel assemblies to be added.
Natural Hazards
The plant and its equipment are designed to withstand most natural events (earthquakes, floods, high winds, tornados, etc.). Plant operators monitor these events to ensure they do not threaten safe operation of the plant. If events occur that may threaten safety, operators take action to place the plant in a safe condition. If it has been determined that an event such as an earthquake, tornado, flood, etc. has occurred, plant shutdown may be required. Operators will perform a normal plant shutdown and engineering evaluations will be performed.
Nuclear Energy
The heat energy produced by the process of nuclear fission within a nuclear reactor or by radioactive decay.
Nuclear Reactor Components
Reactor: Those components which, together, support the controlled fission process and the generation of steam for the purpose of producing power. Components include the reactor core, reactor vessel, control rods and reactor coolant system. Fuel Cladding: The long zirconium metal tubes in which the fuel pellets are stacked. The fuel cladding along with the fuel pellets are referred to as 'fuel rods.' The fuel cladding serves as the first and primary fission product barrier. Fuel Assembly: An array of fuel rods (plus guide thimbles and an instrument tube) held together by grid assemblies. There are many fuel assemblies in the core. Also referred to as a 'fuel bundle'. Core: The reactor core is comprised of the fuel assemblies and the structural materials which together serve to promote the fission process. Reactor Coolant: The water which serves to remove the heat energy from the core. Typically, water is referred to as 'reactor coolant' only when it is located within a reactor coolant system.
Potassium Iodide KI
KI (potassium iodide) is a salt of stable (not radioactive) iodine that can help block radioactive iodine from being absorbed by the thyroid gland, thus protecting this gland from radiation injury.
Radiation
Energy moving in the form of particles or waves. Familiar radiations are heat, light, radio waves, and microwaves. Ionizing radiation is a very high-energy form of electromagnetic radiation.
