This issue gave me a run for my money for the better part of an evening, but there is hope- and it does come by way of 3rd party software.
Visit
www.asio4all.com and download the drivers there in, you'll effectively spoof PT9 into running happily with your Firepod. Please bare in mind that asio4all is NOT an executable, and will open on it's own when starting Protools. (if this doesn't happen, reinstall the driver or your comp. all together)
At first try, I was only able to successfully run 2 channels (stereo) simultaneously (ie. 3-8 on the Firepod lay dormant). A quick delete and return to defaults on the I/0 menu had it recognizing the device through and through.
I'll be upgrading from the Pod all together in a month or so, but this was a great fall back, and a chance to keep some inputs alive while I pull the money together for the ProFire 2626.
Hope this is useful to someone out there!
Cheers.