1. What syschefs have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. The act of throwing lots of manpower and late nights at a project, especially to get it out before deadline. See also gang bang, Mongolian Hordes technique however, the term "firefighting" connotes that the effort is going into chasing bugs rather than adding features. (1994-12-01)