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

Patient Assessment

This video features subject matter experts guiding you through the process of patient assessment with the help of the Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG).

Category: Medical

Core Component(s):

Fire and Aviation Operational Safety

Estimated Delivery Time: 20 minutes

Video Length: 8:07

Intent

This module shows firefighters how to use standardized checklists from the NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, during emergency responses. These tools improve communication and guide you through medical procedures. Firefighters with minimal medical experience can utilize the Patient Assessment and Medical Incident Response (MIR) checklists in the IRPG.

Facilitator Preparation

Review the video and module tools.
Consider additional activities and discussion questions relevant to the geographic location and your respective agency.

Facilitating the Discussion

Show the video.
Facilitate a small or large group discussion using the activity and discussion questions.
Present the scenario below and guide students through the exercise.

Scenario

You are on a single resource assignment as a heavy equipment boss on the Wolf Jaw Fire. In preparation for a burnout operation, you have been working with a skid steer operator for three days to move deadfall from a fireline.

At 10:00 AM on the third day, you watch as the skid steer operator grabs one end with the tree with the grapple and begins pushing it into the planned burn area. The tree meets resistance against a standing tree, slips off the grapple and smashes through the skid steer’s front glass. The operator reverses, stops, and then yells to you for help. You assist the operator out of the skid steer and have them sit on the ground. You notice blood seeping through the operator’s pants but cannot immediately see the extent of the wound. The operator says they feel dizzy and nauseous.

What do you do now? Discuss as a class

Image 1: The top of the tree (in blue circle) smashed through the skid steer glass and hit the operator.

Image 2: The skid steer glass was smashed by the tree.

Conduct Activity (Optional)

Divide the class.
Give each group the Activity Questions below.
Discuss group responses.

Activity Questions

Find the Patient Assessment page in your IRPG.
Find the Medical Incident Report in your IRPG.
What is the ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) check used for? What are additional considerations to ABC?
Go to Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center and search for “Schenk” or “Schenk Prescribed Fire Hit by Tree 2024.” Read the Rapid Lesson Sharing report (RLS). Discuss how your responses to the activity compare to this real life success story.

Resources

Websites:

WFSTAR: Medical Incident Report
WFSTAR: Short-haul Capabilities and Limitations
Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

Publication: NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, Emergency Medical Care (red pages)

Table of Abbreviations:

ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation. The most important considerations of life threats in addition to blood loss.
IRPG: Incident Response Pocket Guide
MIR: Medical Incident Report, often referred to as a MIR report.
RLS: Rapid Lesson Sharing

Additional Video Information

The video is also available as a download (Size 1.23GB); 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.
Note: For Chrome and Firefox, right click the word download and select Save Link As; for IE, right click and select Save Target As.

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Last Modified / Reviewed: February 13, 2026

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Date: March 13, 2026
Questions?
Please contact: Leadership Committee

The NWCG Leadership Committee is proud to announce the recipients of the 2024 Paul Gleason "Lead By Example" awards. Award categories include Initiative and Innovation, Mentoring and Teamwork, Motivation and Vision, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Questions?
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RT-130 (WFSTAR)

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