Inside a wildfire response camp: Smoke, devotion, and fried chicken

Amid wildfires of historic scale, the efforts to respond are monumental, yet often go unseen. Meet the firefighting crews and support teams on the front lines of large Western blazes.

Darren Ballentine thinks he knows what it takes to successfully fight a huge wildfire, and he can provide it: meatloaf.

“Good food and good morale make for a safe fire,” says Mr. Ballentine, who is in charge of feeding about 1,200 firefighters at the Oregon Bootleg Fire, for two weeks the largest in a swarm of wildfires in the West. “They...