August typically marks the beginning of California’s Fire Season. When reporters talk about forest fires, they always comment on the Percent Contained. I always wondered what that meant. In case you were wondering, here’s how it’s defined:

Percent Contained is the ratio of “fire line” length to the fire’s circumference.

Fire line is either dug or created by firefighters, or a naturally occurring landscape feature like a cliff or a body of water. In other words, if the fire is 100 miles in circumference, and there are 50 miles of fire line, then the fire is 50% contained.

Interesting, huh?

For further reading:
http://www.slate.com/id/1008128/