Founded in 1988 to offer a more sustainable solution for wildland fire camps, Western Shelter has always viewed Spring as the start of the U.S. Fire Season and a reason to refocus on our purpose and our customers. While we have grown significantly since then, protecting firefighters and incident commanders remains at the core of our mission.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) issued their initial outlook for the 2022 Spring/early Summer, forecasting above normal fire potential for the southern plains and southeast, with a concerned look at drought conditions in the West, the Plains, and Texas. February has already seen Fire activity increase, with the year-to-date number of fires and acres burned for the US at nearly double the 10-year average.

At Western Shelter, we’ve been preparing all winter for this scenario, and we’re ready to make sure you have the necessary resources at your disposal when you’re called to action. 

With temperatures already climbing in the South, insulation walls and HVAC units are critical shelter system components at fire camps, providing a welcome break from the elements. 

Shelters equipped with insulation walls and HVACs make excellent day sleeper shelters for crews that operate at night, since most of the sunlight is blocked out and they manage to stay quite cool through the heat of the day. Our bunkbeds also help to maximize the utility of the day sleepers, by allowing 20 people to rest comfortably in a single Gatekeeper 1935.

Portable power is critical to keeping camps like this running. With potential long lead times due to national supply chain challenges, we recommend you order now to ensure you have the generators, and power cables essential for every camp.

Hygiene matters, especially in such rough conditions. Our water distribution systems, storage bladders, water heaters, showers and sinks let you keep clean and sanitary despite the smoke and soot. 

Everyone eats, and fire crews have notoriously large appetites. Our custom kitchen trailers are up to the challenge, capable of bringing refrigeration, stoves, water, and storage anywhere you can drag it. Our shelters can also be configured for cooking, and our new Kitchen Carts make it easy to bring  integrate cook tops, microwaves, refrigeration, sinks seamlessly into your camp. It can even stand alone with just a garden hose connection if you don’t need hot water.

Our shelters can easily be configured for a number of other uses, such as command and control, briefing rooms, medical areas, laundry facilities, and restrooms. Use our divider walls to turn our larger shelters into functionally divided spaces to suit your mission needs.  

Taking care of those who selflessly take care of us should never be an afterthought. Proper time and equipment should always be dedicated to treat our first responders in emergency situations. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) adopted rehab guidelines to ensure that firefighters receive care for their mental and physical conditions on the job. This was adopted to both improve firefighter performance (short term and long term), but more importantly to reduce the likelihood of injury or death. In order to comply with NFPA 1584, the rehab area must: 

• Protect from the elements

• Provide safe refuge from the incident

• Protect from environmental conditions created by the incident (smoke, toxins, etc)

• Be large enough to accommodate both rehab personnel and multiple responding crews

• Be located near EMS

Western Shelter has developed multiple rehabilitation solutions for firefighters and fire crews. The most efficient way to effectively rehab firefighters is to provide a fully outfitted rehab trailer. Rehab operations should be equipped with air conditioning, seating, medical supplies, fan/misting system, water and electrolytes, amongst other necessities. Trailers also offer ease of mobility between locations/response events and can be relocated quickly if needed. They are also Interoperable between multiple departments (city/county/state) and can be funded through a significant number of grant opportunities. In more long-term scenarios, any of our shelters can also be configured to meet the NFPA’s criteria and can easily be incorporated into your existing camp’s footprint and logistics network. 

Whatever your needs are this Fire Season, we stand ready at Western Shelter to make sure you’re properly equipped to fight one of Nature’s most unforgiving and destructive forces.