How do they get fed? There's a Fish Creek fire in Wyoming now that has 490 firefighters working the fire. How in the heck do that many personnel get fed? RTEs or caterers? Just wondering.

Caterers. Food is hauled out to people that are out in spike camps. They are fed well. Big mobile kitchens are brought in and a whole new city pops up.Caterers come in with all their help and they have people that run to towns for restocking. Heck we have a fire with 1300 plus people on it right now.

Thank you. That would require alot of good grub.

Large fires will get caterers until the supply of them nationally is exhausted. The food contract is very specific and vendors must be signed up, have a contract and be inspected. Each breakfast, supper and sack lunch must contain XXX Calories along with other requirements. Most sandwiches are made in the winter and frozen. Some caterers used to rely heavily on frozen burritos too. Some caterers are very good and others, not so much. The state of Nevada did or used to have a mobile kitchen run by inmates who did all the cooking.
On smaller fires the menu will consist of a lot of MRE's, Sub Sandwiches and whatever the local community can support. When I was working in Idaho years ago, a "Payette Food Bag" was the best you could ask for and these could be delivered by helicopter longline or paracargo.

I've been contracting on fires for 5 years hauling supplies to drop points, spike camps and where ever and what ever they need then hauling what ever they have back to the main supply area after the fire is over.
The spike camps we haul breakfast and dinner to them in "hot cans" which are big metal containers that are insulated. Lunches and ice are hauled from a refer in cardboard boxes. 160 is correct, the size of the camp (people) dictates what size cook kitchen there is. The fires i just got off of had 1800 fire fighters on. Had a huge kitchen out of California with the best food I've had on a fire. Most of the fire fighters work 12 hours. Half on night Half days. They have shower trailers and laundry trailers on big fires. The fire i just came off of they had 2 semi loads of food come in daily and 1 semi at night with Lunches and 1 semi with ice and 1 with water and Gatorade. Not very many mre's but some. One day there's nothing the next a city

All the above responses are pretty much accurate with 1 exception. Bag lunches are made up on site by a night crew from the mobile kitchen, at least they were when wife was a kitchen manager for one of the major contract kitchens.
The personnel that work those kitchens put in some long hrs, was nothing to do 18 to 20hr days 7 days a week, between meal prep, serving and clean up especially when feeding 2000 plus personnel.

Larger "project" fires in Lower 48 normally have caterers, as 160user explained.

Here in Alaska, catering is not practical. After the first three days out, we distribute "fresh food boxes" to the ff's. They contain food items for 10 ff's for 3 days. Different crews/work units utilize them in different ways. Sometimes its "every man for himself." Others designate a cook who prepares the food. We often dig a natural "cooler" in the permafrost to keep perishable items cold.

For the initial three days, we furnish MRE's. There are always MRE's available in camp.

PS: We don't have "Shower Units" available in our camps either!

Pete

And the first supper was always Spaghetti! Always!

Interesting topic.
So is this all state or federally funded? Maybe both?

Following Hurricane Isabel around 2004, a barrier island off NC was isolated because of highway breaches and a new inlet. The Army brought in our basic living needs. We had no phone, cell phone,TV, water or electricity. A company named Brush Fire supplied portable shower trucks which were very welcomed. Mainland restaurants catered evening meals brought over by boat, and each restaurant tried to out do the others. Th army cooked for us also. This lasted about a month. We even received bicycles. All running vehicles were available to anyone in need.

Those brush fire trailers became social gathering spots. When we went to the showers at dark, we took lawn chairs and wine. Some people had lost nearly everything, yet we had relaxing evenings around the showers.

Where is the current 1300 man fire?

In the mid 80 AZ must have had the market cornered on ham and cheese on stale white bread with old crusty snickers candy bars. California had the best catered food. In camp and
Out on the line. Just don't get caught selling carbonated beverages on the fire line.

Likely the "Coffee Pot" fire in CA. Most of the Western fires are finally starting to wind down. My old stomping grounds on the Boise NF is still chewing up some acres.

https://www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/sitreprt.pdf

Just one of the many fires in Idaho has 1480 Firefighters in it. Wapiti fire is 180000 acres and little containment. This is the Stanley Id area, Snag fire,Middle Fork Complex,and many more are very active. Inciweb is the national fire web site with a map and info.

Here’s the link to the Inciweb website.

https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/

does ground sell cheap after a fire runs through. I would think a well burned area would be safe from another big fire for several years with all the dead fall burn up.

if I were going to build in a fire prone area the area around the house would be cleared a long way out and I would not have any flammable material exposed. to the outside. but that's all fine and dandy to say but would be a very expensive build.i better just stay where tornadoes or a big earth quake are the biggest disaster possibilities. I couldn't imagine being in the path of one of those huge fires.

seems like decaded of forest miss management is coming home to roost.

I worked on the Boise NF in the 90's and that country burns EVERY year. All the dead standing snags just make for lightning rods in the years to come and the regen comes back dog hair thick is some areas that didn't get nuked by the fire. I was on the Lowman District and at the Elk Creek Guard station most of the time so I am pretty familiar with the area and have several friends on that fire now. I assume the 13 structures that were lost were probably around Grand Jean.