Mike,
The files in question you can open them even in word IF THEY ARE REGISTERED TO BE OPENED WITH WORD. You can instruct WINDOWS to open any type of file with a specific program.
If your OS tells you the .prt files or .1, .2, .n files are registered with PROE2001, that means your OS was instructed to recognize these parts as Proe2001.
If a file was created with Solid Works and has extension .prt, your OS will tell you that is a PROE2001 file, but when you'll try to open it, you'll receive an error message saying that part cannot be opened with PROE.
If a prt, .asm file was created with a previous version of Wildfire, you can read/modify them in Wildfire without any problem. But not vice-verca.
Don't worry if you will not see part registered as Wildfire. If is a PorE stuff, you can open it. If you prefer to see them as Wildfire, either you'll re run the Wildfire setup program, either intstruct WINDOWS to recognize files as Wildfire. Supposing you have Wildfire installed.
Good luck.
-Hora