Wildfire Knowledge Graph · Operations
A method of checking a fire edge by careful inspection and touch to confirm that no heat remains capable of rekindling or escaping.
In plain language
A method of checking a fire edge by careful inspection and touch to confirm that no heat remains capable of rekindling or escaping.
Why it matters
Cold Trailing is useful because it separates one specific part of wildfire behaviour, exposure, operations or evidence from nearby concepts that can otherwise be mixed together.
What is cold trailing in a wildland fire?
Cold trailing is a way for firefighters to control a partly dead fire edge. The NWCG glossary describes careful inspection and checking for heat to locate remaining fire, followed by dealing with live spots and any live edge. The term “cold” does not mean that the entire fire perimeter has already been proved heat-free.
How is it different from mop up? Cold trailing names a particular method of working along a partly dead edge. Mop up is a broader set of tasks that includes extinguishing or removing burning material near control lines after an area has burned. The terms can describe related work, but they are not interchangeable.
Cold trailing is a professional wildfire-suppression term. For a reader interpreting an incident update, it indicates that crews are checking and treating remaining activity at an edge; it does not by itself establish that the whole incident is contained or extinguished. See wildfire containment for the separate perimeter-status concept.