Although wildland fires have burned the American landscape since long before the arrival of Europeans, they received little national attention before the 20th century. Even the Peshtigo Fire that burned more than 1.5 million acres in Wisconsin, killing more than 1,200 people, was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire that began the same day in 1871.

When the Big Burn of 1910 killed at least 78 firefighters and burned millions of acres in northern Idaho and western Montana, the public and politicians became aware of the tremendous loss of life and property associated with wildland fires.

The NWCG report "Historical Wildland Firefighter Fatalities 1910–1996" (1997) records numerous wildland firefighter fatalities from 1910 to 1948. On August 6, 1949, 13 firefighters died in a sudden blowup in Montana's Mann Gulch. A thorough investigation was conducted. The events were popularized in the 1952 movie, "Red Skies of Montana," and documented in Norman Maclean's bestselling book, "Young Men and Fire."

In the 1950s, 15 firefighters were killed at the Rattlesnake Fire in northern California (1953) and another 11 died at the Inaja Fire in southern California (1956). After those fires, the Chief of the Forest Service commissioned a task force that prepared a "Report of Task Force to Recommend Action to Reduce the Chances of Firefighters Being Killed by Burning While Fighting Fire" (1957). That study resulted in development of the "10 Standard Fire Orders" and the "13 Situations That Shout Watch Out" (now "18 Situations That Shout Watch Out").

A Forest Service fire safety review team issued a 1967 report: "A Plan to Further Reduce the Chances of Men Being Burned While Fighting Fires." After more fire fatalities in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the Forest Service issued the "Preliminary Report of Task Force on Study of Fatal/Near-Fatal Wildland Fire Accidents" (1980). The report documented Forest Service firefighter fatalities from 1926 to 1979, firefighter fatalities for other agencies from 1933 to 1979 (including firefighter fatalities in Canada), and near misses for all agencies from 1949 to 1979.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has also looked at wildland firefighter fatalities, sometimes at the request of Federal agencies. An NFPA report in August 1988 summarized all firefighter fatalities in the United States, including those involving wildland firefighters. Two NFPA studies looked specifically at wildland firefighter fatalities: an August 1991 report covered fatalities from 1981 to 1990 and a special analysis in 1997 covered wildland firefighter fatalities from 1987 to 1996.