Inside a wildfire response camp: Smoke, devotion, and fried chicken

Darren Ballentine thinks he knows what it takes to successfully fight a huge wildfire, and he can provide it: meatloaf.

“Good food and good morale make for a safe fire,” says Mr. Ballentine, who is in charge of feeding about 1,200 firefighters at the Oregon Bootleg Fire, for two weeks the largest in a swarm of wildfires in the West. “They love the meals like they would get at home.”

Tens of thousands of men and women are fighting the West’s wildfires. Mr. Ballentine, the food supply officer at Forward Operating Base ZX on the north side of the Bootleg Fire, is part of the army who provide the logistics, food, sleeping, and even showers for the firefighters. They are the machinery behind the scenes.

President Biden recently has expressed concern for that machine. “Our resources are already being stretched to keep up. We need more help,” he told Western governors July 30. The ranks have been weakened by exhaustion from the pace of fires, concern over COVID-19, and the sapping demands of the work in a tinderbox of heat and

Setting plans, one day at a timeWide-ranging backgrounds“They are ready to go”Showers, food, and encouragement