Incident Response Pocket Guide: From Inception to Today

This spring marks 31 years since the local publication of the first Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG) in 1994 and 26 years since it became a National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) interagency guide in 1999. The IRPG is the “go-to” field authority for wildland guidelines and best practices.

Over the years, there’s been a fair amount of speculation about the origin of the IRPG and even a few stories online that were categorically false. This is the origin story.

Conceptualization

As a U.S. Forest Service battalion chief on the Los Padres National Forest based in Ojai, CA, I had consistency problems with the initial size-up reports from my captains. We had an engine drill exercise program that the Forest pushed aggressively, by which we flagged out mock fires and dispatched units without warning to the fires. On arrival at a simulated or actual fire, there was a standard report on conditions list that was supposed to be used, so the report covered all needed information in a specific order to ensure that the dispatchers could capture the information easily on their forms. Sometimes, information was missing, and the random order in which it was reported made it difficult for dispatchers to capture what was needed.

The Forest created and printed a card for initial response incident commanders to follow. This presented a problem in that firefighters already carried cards with the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders, the 18 Watch-Out Situations, water use hand signals, Lookouts/Communications/Escape Routes/Safety Zones, ground-to-air signals, dozer hand signals, etc. I had seen several pocket-size guides, but they didn’t have the information that I wanted my personnel to have at their fingertips. A small-size, comprehensive reference document for wildland fire initial response just wasn’t available. We all carried a Fireline Handbook in our packs, but it was bulky and wasn’t easily accessible in initial response. It seemed logical to put together a handy, pocket-size booklet that contained the type of information that was most used by wildland firefighters in initial response.

I started to gather information, scan graphics and add original text where needed. I put together a camera-ready IRPG working from my home computer using PageMaker. I titled the booklet “Initial Response Pocket Guide,” given that the focus was on information that was needed to be accessed quickly on initial response.

The guide included not only the type of traditional wildland information that was in what’s cited above but other information that was considered nontraditional by the Forest Service but sometimes encountered, including medical aids, vehicle accidents, unexploded ordnance, USAR markings, NFPA 704: Standard System for the Identification of the Hazards of Materials for Emergency Response, HazMat IC checklist and other relevant information. I consulted with subject matter experts from the Forest Service and with chief officers from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, Montecito Fire Department and Ventura County Fire Department on the content.

After completion, Forest Fire Chief Thom Myall authorized the guide to be printed and distributed to all firefighters at the 1994 Forest live fire school, and I sent copies to my technical fire management classmates for their review and input. Myall asked me to put the guide into an official employee suggestion, so the idea would be forced up the system from the Forest through the region to the Washington office.

The first national edition

In 1995, Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region Deputy Fire Director Ray Quintanar asked me to create a regional edition. I did so and created, updated and expanded regional editions in 1996 and 1997 based on field user input.

As copies started to get around, I was contacted by numerous federal, state and local wildland fire entities that asked for customized editions for their units with specific local information. I created more than a dozen unique versions.

Additionally, I created aviation pocket guides for the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Aircraft Services and the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region Aviation Safety Officer at their request.

NWCG initially resisted publishing the IRPG nationally, saying that it had only local applicability. After a presentation at the National Safety Conference in 1995, the clamor from the field started to build. In 1997, I was asked to make an IRPG presentation for NWCG, and in 1998, NWCG published a draft version for comment.

In 1999, an interagency committee that was under the leadership of Paul Broyles (National Park Service) finalized the first national edition for printing and distribution. It was retitled “Incident Response Pocket Guide” to reflect the expanded content for extended attack.

Become a better leader

The IRPG is recognized as the field job aid and training reference. It’s cited widely in wildland fire training and is a “textbook” in many classes, even at the university level. I used it myself when teaching fire science at my local community college.

Since the retirement of the Fireline Handbook in 2013, the IRPG is the only portable field reference that’s available to wildland firefighters. The IRPG is updated and printed on a three-to-four-year cycle. The latest edition was printed in January 2025 and is available through the NWCG Publications Catalog (pink cover, PMS 461) and through online resellers. NWCG prints about 350,000–450,000 copies of each addition. Approximately 300,000 copies of the January 2025 IRPG were printed in the first run.

A tool is only as good as the person who uses it. The IRPG is a pocket guide, not an “in my desk” guide or an “in my glove box” guide. If you don’t carry it, you can’t use it. If you don’t know and understand the content, it won’t be useful when you need information quickly.

Firefighting is largely rules-based. Unfortunately, many rules were derived as the result of near misses, injuries and fatalities. Many of the additions to the IRPG over the years were focused on us, the firefighters, and how we should do our job: operational leadership, duty, respect, integrity, communications responsibilities, leader’s intent, human factors, stress reactions and hazardous attitudes. I applaud these additions. Healthy organizations look at themselves seriously with an eye toward growth and improvement, and the IRPG reinforces the behavior and leadership that’s expected of firefighters. Not everyone can become a great leader, but everyone can become a better leader, and I believe the IRPG can help in that regard.

My only criticism of the more recent IRPG versions is that the various operational hand signals and the ground-to-air signals were removed over the years. Overreliance on electronics can cause safety and communications problems. Overloaded systems, damaged infrastructure, dead batteries and even denial-of-service attacks can happen, rendering radios and cellphones inoperable. It’s happened to many of us, and it will happen again. It never hurts to have other communications options available.

Beyond wildland

I have heard many times over the years that the IRPG is only for wildland firefighters. That isn’t even remotely true.

Unfortunately, some firefighters receive little or no wildland training in their academies even though wildland fire is a distinct and complex discipline. All firefighters can benefit from the IRPG even if they never or rarely engage in wildland firefighting. I invite you to look at the IRPG online and read the sections on leadership, operational engagement, specific hazards, fire environment, all-hazard response, aviation and other references and consider how the information could be used personally, in training or in response scenarios within your department.

The development of the IRPG from 1993 through early 1999 is the one professional accomplishment of which I am most often reminded because of how it has endured and evolved, what it has become and the lasting effect that it’s enjoyed. The acronym IRPG is known throughout the fire community, and its use has become part of the very fabric of wildland fire management in almost every aspect of response and training. Maybe its use has prevented an injury or a fatality in the 31 years since the original publication. I like to believe that it has.