WISDOM — In Wisdom, Montana, hundreds of firefighters are working to contain two major wildfires — and when their shifts end, they return to a sprawling base camp that functions as a small city.
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The Sand Creek Fire has burned more than 31,000 acres. The Bobcat Lakes Fire is close to 10,000 acres. Crews have been able to protect structures in the path of both fires.
“Basically, it’s a small, self-sufficient village to support all the operations on the fire,” Fire Information Officer Kimberly Smolt said Monday from the Incident Command Post near Wisdom.
This is where they do operations, planning, safety, even payroll, and, importantly, medical services too.
“We have items for dealing with foot care, blisters, kind of minor scrapes, just kind of things to keep firefighters out on the line without having to go to hospital or clinic,” Medical Unit LeaderTravis Georgius said from the camp’s medical tent.
Smolt said, “Yesterday, there was a close call. A tree came down, but luckily it only grazed the firefighter’s arm.”
Feeding hundreds of firefighters is also a major logistical undertaking. The mess hall is central to camp life, and the job's caloric demands are significant.
"Firefighters need about 7 or 8,000 calories a day to replenish what they burned off. There's a saying that firefighters have: Smoke in the sky and pigs will die. Because there's a lot of bacon in the morning and ham sandwiches are very popular."
The camp was quiet that morning because 480 crew members were out working the Sand Creek fire.
Crews have been able to protect structures in the path of the fires.
“We have four or five days of red flag fire conditions, which is as dangerous as we get. And now that it has rained, things have changed; the fuels are a lot wetter, and fire activity has become minimal,” Smolt said.
