 The future of wildfire management is hard to predict, but it's safe to say that change will come. As fire intensity grows and humans continue to encroach upon fire environments, we must adapt as firefighters. We are continually developing new policies and strategies. Technology will unleash capabilities we can only now dream of. Despite this, some of the most fundamental elements will remain unchanged. The nature of fire will remain constant and firefighters will still make mistakes. So what will drive change? One can only speculate. Historically, most of the changes in our 100-year history have come from tragedy fires. In order to predict where we are going, you need to understand where we have been. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the great fires of 1910, which devastated large areas of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and left 78 firefighters dead. It's astonishing to see the impact those fires still have on our policies and tactics of today. The 2009 fire season might be considered a bit slow by many and according to the numbers it was. National preparedness levels never exceeded three, with the exception of Alaska. Compared to the five- and ten-year averages, the amount of wildfires in the 2009 fire season was very similar, but fewer acres burned than the averages of the last ten years. If you were a firefighter deployed to the station fire in California, you would say it was anything but a slow year. The largest fire in the history of the Angeles National Forest cost two firefighters their lives. It burned over 160,000 acres across 230 square miles. Over 200 structures were destroyed with well over 5,000 firefighters battling it at its peak. Over $93 million was spent fighting the arson cost station fire. You might think that the below average fire season would mean firefighters weren't being hurt and killed. If you do, you are wrong. In 2009 there were 15 fatalities. You may be surprised to hear that a high number of injuries were sustained during physical training and the injury rate remains high from all-terrain vehicles. As you may expect, the number of vehicle accidents is still a concern. Just because it wasn't a mega season doesn't mean that it isn't a dangerous occupation. The new edition of the Incident Response Pocket Guide is on the street. Usually just called the IRPG. This publication is the primary wildland fire job aid and training reference for fire service personnel up to the Incident Command Type 3 and Division Supervisor level. It also has a secondary application for individuals involved with all hazard response. This handy reference has been used by personnel across a wide spectrum of fire service agencies for over 10 years now. More than 70,000 of these guides are issued every year and it has been translated into Spanish, French and Arabic. This 2010 edition of the Incident Response Pocket Guide reflects feedback from the first national comprehensive review of this publication since it was initially put into service in 1999. To denote this, the cover color has been changed to orange. There are a number of significant changes from the previous 2006 edition. A summary of the changes is provided on the last page of the new 2010 edition. Take five minutes before the refresher program begins to check out the new IRPG and become familiar with some of the new features. As your facilitator leads you through this program, start preparing yourself for this fire season by participating in the exercises and sharing your experiences with your fellow firefighter.