Glossary

A compressed gas is a substance that is a gas at normal room temperature and pressure, and is contained under pressure, usually in a cylinder.

Commonly used for National Resilience capabilities. A high level description of how a defined system will operate to achieve defined strategic objectives. ConOps will establish the higher-level framework within which more specific, operational-level plans, protocols and procedures will be developed and implemented.

A conoid is a special kind of warped ruled surface which can be used to form a curved shell roof. The basic principle is that one edge of the shell is curved while the opposite edge is kept straight.

An instrument used to detect contamination by radioactive particles. Usually measured in counts per second.

Existing, occurring or originating during the same time. In the context of contemporaneous notes, they are made at the time of, or as soon as possible after, an incident.

Control lines are constructed or natural barriers, including treated fire edges, which are used to control a fire. They can be constructed manually, mechanically or by applying water or retardants.

The regulations requiring employers to adequately control exposure to materials in the workplace that cause ill health.

A vehicle equipped as a mobile control and communication room for use by incident commanders or the command support function at large incidents.

A rising column of products of combustion.

Critical infrastructure is a broad term used to describe Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and other infrastructure of national significance, as well as infrastructure and assets of local significance.

National Infrastructure are those facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes, necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends. It also includes some functions, sites and organisations which are not critical to the maintenance of essential services, but which need protection due to the potential danger to the public (civil nuclear and chemical sites for example).

Fuels with no living tissue. The moisture content of dead fuels is mostly controlled by external weather conditions, such as relative humidity, precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation.

When casualties or patients receive specialist medical or hospital care

Combustion of a substance which is initiated suddenly and propagates extremely rapidly, giving rise to a shock wave

The police process of gathering evidence relating to bodies or body parts, and determining the cause of death resulting from an emergency or disaster, in order to identify the deceased

Leaving a mode of transport, especially a vessel

Companies that own and operate the distribution network of towers and cables that deliver electricity from the national transmission network to homes and businesses. They do not sell electricity to consumers.

A device used to measure an absorbed dose of ionising radiation

At or towards a lower point on a slope

In relation to moving water, situated or moving in the direction in which a stream or river flows. In relation to the oil, gas, refining and petrochemical industries, downstream relates to processing, marketing and distributing crude oil into consumer products.

The blast force generated behind a jet engine, which exists whenever a jet engine is running but is increased and extends over a greater area and at greater distance behind the engine, at high engine power settings when taxiing, before and during take-off, and during engine maintenance activity

Skin creams that often contain flammable substances such as petroleum jelly, mineral oil, lanolin or liquid paraffin

Emphysema is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that causes damage to the air sacs in the lungs

The outer shell of a building, which separates the building’s interior from the outside elements. This will therefore usually comprise the roof, outer walls and floor of the building.