Fighting a wildfire like the 2,680-acre Miriam Fire near White Pass requires a lot of firefighters — and a lot of trucks and planes and helicopters — but it also requires a lot of cooks, a lot of portable toilets, a lot of medical personnel and a whole finance department.
The White Pass Ski Area, from which the Miriam firefighting effort is coordinated, is closed for the summer, but it’s been abuzz with activity since a Type 2 fire incident management team was called in Aug. 1 to deal with the fire, which was detected July 30. The ski lodge, which serves as the command center, is surrounded by a tent city that’s popped up to house the 332 people working on the effort in various capacities.