WFSTAR Annual Refresher
The intent of RT-130, Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR) is to focus line-going personnel on operations and decision-making issues related to fireline safety in order to recognize and mitigate risk, maintain safe and effective practices, and reduce accidents and near misses.
Target Group
RT-130 is required for designated positions in order to maintain currency, for all personnel assigned to positions with fireline duties, and for any position assigned to the fireline for non-suppression tasks.
Firefighters who receive initial fire training are not required to take RT-130 in the same calendar year.
Hours of attendance requirements for RT-130 are determined by each agency and issued through agency-specific directives systems.
BIA, BLM, USFWS, NPS, and USFS RT-130 hours requirements are stated in the Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations (Red Book), Chapter 13.
Course Content and Delivery
The RT-130 modules provide a range of training options to meet NWCG position training requirements and agency-specific RT-130 course-hours requirements. The intent of the NWCG Executive Board is that, regardless of the agency-specific RT-130 course-hours requirements, all RT-130 training covers the core components identified below.
RT-130 Core Components
- Local Topics: (replacing Current Issues) Review and discuss local topics and areas of concern that can impact firefighter safety in the upcoming fire season. Topics may include:
- WFSTAR Year In Review.
- Previous fire season statistics.
- Current national and local Predictive Services products for upcoming fire season.
- Local Fire Management updates and expectations.
- Local staffing and availability updates.
- Local and national aviation updates and availability.
- Incident Reviews and Lessons Learned (replacing Other Hazards and Safety Issues) Review and discuss lessons learned from past local, regional, and national incident response. Topics may include:
- The Lessons Learned Center Annual Review Summary.
- Responding to an incident within an incident utilizing the Medical Incident Report.
- Local lessons learned.
- Case studies, accident reports, facilitated learning analysis, or lesson learned reports.
- Fire and Aviation Operational Safety: (replacing Entrapment Avoidance) Review and discuss the risk management principles and tools that promote safe and effective incident operations. Utilize the appropriate sections of the IRPG. Topics may include:
- Aviation for fireline personnel.
- LCES, Standard Firefighting Orders, Watch Out Situations.
- Common Denominators of Fire Behavior on Tragedy Fires.
- Common Tactical Hazards.
- Downhill Checklist.
- Equipment.
- Safety Zones.
- Weather and fire behavior.
- Wildland Urban Interface.
- Chainsaw Operational Safety.
- Driving Safety.
- Heavy Equipment.
- SAFENET and SAFECOM reports.
- All hazard response.
- Other hazards and safety issues.
- Human Factors, Communication and Decision Making: Discuss the complexity of human factors, their impact on communications and decision making. Topics may include:
- Operational Leadership.
- Communication Responsibilities.
- Situational Awareness.
- Command Presence.
- Leader’s Intent.
- Mental Health.
- Fire Shelters and Entrapment Avoidance: Review and discuss shelter use, deployment site selection, shelter inspections, personal protective equipment, and practice proper deployment techniques. Topics may include:
- Conduct hands on fire shelter proficiency drills in different environments.
- Case studies related to entrapment avoidance.
- Annual updates and reminders for fire shelters from NWCG Fire Shelter and Protective Equipment Subcommittee.
Additional Fire Shelter Resources:
- 2021 Training Update/Reminders
- General Fire Shelter Information
- National Technology and Development Program fire shelter deployment stories can be found in the Case Study category in the WFSTAR catalog.
