Nearly 800,000 acres of California land has burned this year and there’s no end to the 2024 fire season in sight. A team of five Porta Kleen and MPW employees, led by President Adam Black, visited several fire camp sites on the West Coast in July to see Porta Kleen’s Special Operations Solutions equipment in action.

The team—including Black, Human Resources Generalist Adam Boyden, Division Controller Rob Deem, Marketing Director Chad Littrell and Director of Training and Safety Matt Dawson—stopped first at the Lake Fire camp near Santa Barbara, California.

“They were able to see what a typical fire camp for the US Forest Service would look like,” said Bill Sheridan, Porta Kleen’s Special Operations Solutions Division Manager. “Our equipment was out there providing rest and recovery for all the men and women who were fighting the fires daytime and nighttime.”

The fire camp sites are basically mobile villages set up near raging wildfires to provide temporary housing and facilities for fire fighters, and logistics headquarters for the Incident Command team. The sleeper units—which Sheridan calls “mobile hotels”—must be ready at all times to accommodate day shifts, night shifts and even 24-hour shifts.

After meeting some of the fire camp site staff, the team toured the area of the camp known as “Main Street,” which is a line of office trailers with all the Main Street functions of any village, including operations, logistics, planning, finance and claims, among others. “The fire camps are typically set up in a fashion that’s much like the military,” Sheridan said. “When you walk through them, you feel a presence of structure and alignment.”

While traveling to the next camp, it was easy to see that the fields and hillsides that had yet to burn were primed for wildfires to develop. Sheridan said that in the last couple years, there was decent rainfall in the area, which refilled drought-stricken lakes, but all the grass and foliage that grew then has since dried out and is considered “fine fuel” because it’s so combustible.

“With the temperatures and all the fine fuels, it was a tinderbox everywhere we flew,” Sheridan said.

The team flew north to land in Medford, Oregon, which provided access to two fire camps—one in Etna, California, just south of the Oregon border, and the other in Yreka, California. The Etna fire camp was relatively close to the action and helicopters carrying water and flame retardant continually crossed the smoky skyline. That fire, called the Shelley Fire, had already consumed 15,000 acres.

Next, the team visited a Cal Fire state-based camp in sort of a state fairground in the middle of Yreka. It was a huge operation with a strong Porta Kleen presence.

Black said he’s proud of Porta Kleen’s ability to assist first responders’ heroic efforts. “We have a top-notch crew out there,” he said. “They’re doing great work.” Black said that in addition to Porta Kleen, the fire camps had support from every imaginable facet of government, from the state level to the city or county level and federal support.

The fire camp wasn’t exactly what Littrell expected. “It was interesting to see how the whole thing functioned,” he said. “It’s less like a field sort of camp and has more of a basic training vibe.” Littrell was impressed with how well the Porta Kleen equipment is maintained to the company’s strict standard of cleanliness and management, even though it’s constantly surrounded by ash and soot.

“The clean standards were certainly there,” Littrell said. “Of everything, I was most excited to see that.”

While no-one wishes for natural disasters, it’s undeniable that the number of rescue opportunities will only continue to increase nationally. Littrell appreciated the tour and said it’s good to know that the Porta Kleen Special Operations Solutions division is ready to assist in any natural crisis environment at a moment’s notice.