Dictionary.net

The short term fix for a problem instead of addressing it and solving it in a more long term fashion.

1. What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operationalproblems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your newnewsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and Ispent the whole afternoon fighting fires."2. The act of throwing lots of manpower and late nights at aproject, especially to get it out before deadline. See alsogang bang, Mongolian Hordes technique; however, the term"firefighting" connotes that the effort is going into chasingbugs rather than adding features.