What is a wildfire base camp, and what gets ordered?
The small town a large fire builds to house its workforce: sleeping areas, catering, showers, lighting, sanitation, and supply.
When a fire runs long enough to need hundreds of people overnight, someone has to feed and house them. Base camp is that operation: caterers under contract, shower and handwashing units, tents and lighting, potable water, sanitation, and the ground support to keep it running.
Camps stand up fast, and the orders behind them start before the camp is visible: logistics sections begin ordering as soon as the incident’s trajectory is clear.
For contractors
Camp orders follow command tier more reliably than they follow personnel counts. A CIMT fire builds a camp; a Cal Fire Type 3 IC fire with 900 people usually does not, yet. If camp support is your business, the team assignment is your starting gun.
In the briefing
The briefing’s tier chips and Cal Fire reads exist exactly for this call: which fires are about to build a town, and which just look like they will.
Related terms
CIMT · Cal Fire vs federal · Tenders & dozers
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