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Summer is wildfire season, and, not unlike hurricanes and tropical storms, those wildfires need to have specific names, too.

Names for 聽are picked in advance, well before the start of storm season. They鈥檙e assigned in alphabetical order, and they鈥檙e only random first names that have nothing to do with geography or with the origins of each particular weather event.

Wildfires and big storms are named, essentially, for the same reasons: so the agencies involved in preparing and responding can keep track, and so the media and the public can know what鈥檚 going on, too, for safety purposes.

As with tropical storms and hurricanes, differentiating between individual fires is important to firefighters and to the public, especially when there are multiple blazes burning at the same time, as there often are in the summer.

Deb Schweizer is a public information officer at the , or 鈥淣IFC鈥� (pronounced 鈥淣IF-see鈥�) in Boise, Idaho. She says that the process for naming a wildfire burning in a national forest, national park or on other federal land is simple to describe.

鈥淎s a rule, it’s based on a landmark and it’s named by the first firefighter or IC [Incident Commander] on scene, so it’s usually named after a creek or a peak or some kind of landmark nearby that’s easily referenced on a map,鈥� Schweizer said.

NIFC is a campus is Boise where representatives from federal agencies with a stake in tracking, fighting and dealing with the impacts of wildfires 鈥� including the US Forest Service, National Park Service, National Weather Service, FEMA, etc. 鈥� work together and share information year-round, but especially during fire season.

The rules

A related effort, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC), adopted formal 鈥淚ncident Name Protocols鈥� that expand on Deb Schweizer鈥檚 description and give some more formal guidance. Fires are known, in official-speak, as 鈥渋ncidents.鈥�

NMAC鈥檚 protocols are less than a page long, and clearly spell out specific rules, including these fire-naming no-no鈥檚:

[Including] “fire” in the name of the incident. Fire is the Incident Type, which is redundant to include in the incident name.

Naming a fire after a person.

Naming a fire after private property or a company (ex: 鈥淛eep” or “Bar T Ranch”).

Naming a fire that includes the phrase “Dead Man” or “Deadman.”

Naming a fire after another catastrophic fire (one that experienced fatalities, high property losses, etc.).

Naming a fire after a well-publicized event that could cause confusion (ex: 鈥淓clipse鈥� or 鈥淪uper Bowl鈥�).

Using cute or funny fire names, or using a play on words to name a fire. What may be funny to one person or group may not be to another.

The protocol memo emphasizes sensitivity, especially around long-standing geographic names that might now be considered offensive. 鈥淲hat may seem to be a purely innocent name to the local unit,鈥� the memo reads, 鈥渕ay in fact have negative repercussions far beyond the fire itself.”

According to NMAC, when a firefighter or Incident Commander chooses a name for a wildfire, it comes down to following the rules, as well as using thoughtfulness and common sense.

鈥淏e mindful of naming a fire something that may be construed as an offensive, derogatory or inappropriate name to any ethnic, religious or political group,鈥� the memo reads. 鈥淎void using names that are considered slang or may be construed as unprofessional.鈥�

And what if you鈥檝e chosen name, but it just doesn鈥檛 feel right? 鈥淚f in doubt, use common sense and rename the fire.鈥�

In Washington, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is often the lead agency on wildfires that are not on federal land.

More rules

Janet Pearce, communications manager for Washington DNR, shared a copy of the state wildfire naming rules from the agency鈥檚 鈥淓mergency Incident Response Statistics (EIRS)鈥� manual.

It鈥檚 the same basic idea: the first qualified person on the scene of the wildfire chooses the name, and it should be based on a nearby geographic feature which 鈥渂est describes its location,鈥� such as a 鈥渕ountain, stream, road, town, etc.鈥�

The Washington DNR rules includes a few additional “don鈥檛s” that go beyond the federal protocols:

The fire should not be named after . . . the cause.

The fire name should not have more than three words

Avoid using the same name twice. If it is necessary to use the same name, add an identifying number to the name, e.g., Rock Creek #1, Rock Creek #2, etc.

Beyond the wildfire names that become known and used by the media and the public, there鈥檚 an additional level of naming regardless of jurisdiction that鈥檚 more like an accounting function.

In an email, Carrie Bilbao, a public affairs specialist at NIFC, described how the federal tracking system known as FireCode works.

鈥淓ach fire is assigned an incident order number and a fire code,鈥� Bilbao wrote. This includes 鈥渢he two-letter state abbreviation, followed by a three-letter locality and a three-digit fire number. This is used in identifying where the fire is located and for ordering resources.鈥�

FireCode

Bilbao says FireCode was first used for the 2004 fire season.

In practice, FireCode functions a web portal where local agencies enter a details about the wildfire or 鈥渋ncident.鈥� The portal then spits out an official number and letter code 鈥� almost like a ticket number from a helpdesk 鈥� from a database of 鈥淯nit Identifiers.鈥�

For example, the 鈥淟eft Hand Fire鈥� is currently burning 31 miles northwest of Yakima in Eastern Washington. The name comes from the 鈥淟efthand Fork of Rock Creek.鈥�

The FireCode number for the 鈥淟eft Hand Fire鈥� is WA-OWF-000304. The 鈥淲A鈥� stands for Washington, of course; 鈥淥WF鈥� is the three-letter geographic code for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest; and the digits are the sequential number of this particular fire in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

For place-name enthusiasts, there鈥檚 unfortunately no published list of the three-letter geographic codes, which are not always easy to decipher but that do follow a protocol of their own. However, it is possible to (in 鈥渞ich text format) via the web that includes several separate lists, sorted by jurisdiction and state. It鈥檚 also possible to . Maybe someday, someone will publish a helpful book (though with fairly limited appeal) called 鈥淕reat Wildfire Unit Identifiers of the Pacific Northwest.鈥�

One other naming protocol for wildfires is use of the word 鈥渃omplex鈥� to describe multiple fires that have merged, or that are close enough to each other in proximity that they are being fought by the same team. Complexes take the name of the most active fire in the group; that is, the fire requiring the most resources to fight.

Carrie Bilbao at NIF-C says the 鈥渃omplex鈥� naming protocol dates to sometime in the 1980s.

鈥淎 notable fire where it was used was the that occurred on the Salmon National Forest [in] Idaho in 1985,鈥� Bilbao wrote.

Online resources are updated constantly by various agencies through the in Portland, including interactive maps; a , ; Facebook pages for specific fires; and a , to keep people informed about wildfires, whatever they happen to be named.