Just as we're shaking off the droplets of a welcome late winter soaking, we're reminded that the time of the burning bush is nigh.

The Rural Fire Service has declared that in Wollondilly and Wingecarribee, the dreaded bushfire season will officially start on Monday. After a parched winter and years of cursed drought, the rest of the state will no doubt soon be on notice.

Like many, I know the importance of a vigilant and well-informed community during the Australian summer. I've covered some of the worst bushfires in our history.

I was in the hills north of Melbourne during the lethal Black Saturday fires of 2009; I reported on the deadly Canberra blazes in 2003 and I even got a bit singed as I watched, aghast, as flaming wallabies and bandicoots pounded out of the forest into the backyards of doomed houses when fire scorched parts of the South Coast back in 1994.

I grew up surrounded by bush and remember being terrified as our northern Sydney suburb was ringed by towering columns of choking grey smoke in the mid-1970s.

Bushfires are no laughing matter. The language our emergency services use to talk about them, however, certainly is. While I have nothing but respect and admiration for the volunteers of the RFS who risk their lives to protect us and our homes, I do wonder why their superiors have decided they need new ways of saying old things. Of all the natural disasters Australia is beset by, it seems the public communication around bushfires requires a particularly odd brand of corporate-speak.

If, like me, you grew up in an era when you called a spade a spade, not a hand-operated earth and debris redistribution fulcrum, here's a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to stick on the fridge so you know exactly what's happening this bushfire season.

Appliance: When most Australians hear the noun "appliance", they conjure images of food processors, microwave ovens or toasters. When the RFS talks about appliances, however, they're describing large vehicles that are usually painted red and white, are adorned with flashing lights and equipped with hoses that personnel* can use to fight bushfires. When I was in 2nd class at Frenchs Forest Public School, one turned up in the playground on open day. The teacher told us it was a "fire truck".

Fixed wing aircraft: These are machines that have wings fixed to a fuselage. They are capable of flight. Personnel* can sit in these aircraft and observe the behaviour and trajectory of bushfires from vantage points aloft. Fixed wing aircraft can also be utilised to transport personnel* from one location to another should the need arise. Traditionally, fixed wing aircraft were known as planes or aeroplanes.

Rotatable wing aircraft: The first time I heard about these machines was in the 1990s. The then RFS Commissioner Phil Koperberg declared during a press conference that "multiple fixed wing and rotatable wing aircraft have been deployed to assist in the fire-fighting effort" (I'm not making this up. Media Monitors will have a record of it). Like fixed-wing aircraft, rotatable wing aircraft are also capable of flight, thanks in large part to their wings, which rotate. These rotating wings also enable the aircraft to hover over a fixed position, like a dam for example. Some rotatable wing aircraft are retro-fitted with large buckets and/or pumps that enable them to pick up water to dump on fires. Once upon a time we called these aircraft "helicopters".

Hazard reduction: OK, a bit close to my heart here ... for years my darling mum Jude has volunteered in the catering division of the RFS and she - like everyone else in the service - calls hazard reductions HRs. Recently she told me, "We had to prepare 345 meals this weekend because they're having a major HR at Ku ring-gai Chase." I thought it was a bit over the top to serve 345 RFS personnel a free lunch while they sat through a human resources workshop. But mum explained that an HR is basically a controlled fire that's deliberately lit in order to burn excess vegetation ahead of the fire season. "You know darling, like they used to do down behind the park when you were a little boy - they called it a back burn then."

Containment lines: Like Mum, I used to think a containment line was Tupperware until she joined the RFS and started using the term to describe something that already had a name. Containment lines are natural or man-made obstacles that hinder a fire from spreading. In other words, a fire break.

*Personnel: These are the brave and selfless human beings, trained in the art of firefighting, who are "deployed" in conjunction with "appliances" and various aircraft, both "fixed wing" and "rotatable wing", who use liquid "retardants", most commonly pressurised H2O, to "suppress" flames on the "fire ground". And to use plain old-fashioned English, God bless every bloody one of them.