RT-130, Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR)

Local Topics

• Fire Year in Review 2025
  • Revisit significant events and statistics from the 2025 fire season. Identify lessons learned to prepare for the future. Explore available intelligence sources to independently improve big-picture situational awareness.
  • Hear from Brian Fennessy, Chief of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service; Sarah Fisher, Deputy Chief of U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation; Scott Mayer from the National Interagency Coordination Center; Greg Smith, Fire Director for the National Association of State Foresters; Travis Touchette, Director of the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center; meteorologist Jim Wallmann; and Brandon Hankla from 6 Minutes for Safety.

Fire and Aviation Operational Safety

• Module (Patient Assessment)
  • Firefighters learn how to use standardized checklists from the NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, during emergency responses. These tools improve communication and guide responders through medical procedures. Firefighters with minimal medical experience can utilize the Patient Assessment and Medical Incident Response (MIR) checklists in the IRPG.
• Module (Specific Treatments)
  • This module shows firefighters how to use the Specific Treatments page from the Emergency Medical Care section of the NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, to treat common injuries that occur during wildland fire operations. This module focuses on simple, effective treatments that can help firefighters stabilize patients and support successful outcomes.
• Module (Deer Creek Fire Pyro-Vortex)
  • This module discusses the warning signs and hazards of a pyro-vortex by examining a well-documented pyro-vortex that occurred on the Deer Creek fire in Utah on July 12, 2025. This pyro-vortex was large enough and caused enough damage for the National Weather Service to classify the incident as an EF2 tornado.

Incident Reviews and Lessons Learned

• Module (Ransom Road Fire Immersive Case Study)
  • This module provides learners with an enhanced understanding of the Ransom Road Fire that occurred on June 8, 1981. This Storymap is a supplement to the Ransom Road Fire video that was released Fall 2025.

Fire Shelter and Entrapment Avoidance

• Next Generation Fire Shelter Video (Updated 2026) 

  The Next Generation Fire Shelter video is also available as a download (Size 6.86 GB); with the .srt file for closed captioning (you may need to right click and Save As). For information on how to add closed captioning to a video, see this how to page.

• PMS 411 Web Portal

Resources

• RT-130, WFSTAR Overview.
• WFSTAR Catalog.
• NWCG YouTube with WFSTAR module videos.
• Fire Behavior Field Reference Guide, PMS 437 – Observing Fire Weather section.
• Infectious Disease Guidance for Wildland Fire Incidents guidance from NWCG Emergency Medical Committee.
• Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center.
• NWCG Fire Shelter and Personal Protective Equipment Subcommittee – See fire shelter section.