document: Lightning has set the West ablaze this summer , and electricity is again surging through the nation 's wildfire command post . `` The whole place is running at the max , full out , '' Reed Jarvis of the Boise Interagency Fire Center said last week . But this year is different because the center 's strategists and quartermasters who direct the nation 's wildfire battles can see some of the worst blazes from their windows . As nearly half the acreage afire burns within 150 miles , specialists in the logistics center marshal resources from around the nation . On Saturday , there were about 220,000 acres ablaze in four states , with 102,000 of them in Idaho and the rest in Oregon , California and Utah . `` Tell me when the airplane 's got to leave and I 'll have the team on it , '' coordinator Lynn Findley says into the phone cradled on his shoulder . He hangs up , makes another call and arranges for a procurement expert to fly from Atlanta to LaGrande , Ore. . Another staff member fields a caller searching for a fire officer called `` Joe Blow . '' `` Can you believe it ? '' she says over her shoulder . `` He spells his name B-L-O-U-G-H . '' Others juggle as many as three of the constantly ringing phones , scanning computer terminals for personnel , airplanes , red chemical retardant and gear . `` We drop slimy red mud on burning trees from antique airplanes , '' declares the slogan on one T-shirt . In one leg of the L-shaped logistics room , the intelligence division keeps track of fires around the country . The other finds the crews and equipment to attack the flames . A big chalkboard plots the fires as they eat up mile after mile of fuel . Magnets resembling aircraft dot a map of the country , giving the location and type of equipment available . `` Obviously , firefighting on the line is stressful , '' said Fire Center spokesman Arnold Hartigan . `` But the support people are dealing with human life facing fire , which is inherently dangerous . '' Hundreds of fires burned fitfully in the Idaho backcountry for days after the last `` lightning bust . '' One storm laid down 2,000 strikes an hour with little rain . Then winds reaching 80 mph and temperatures pushing triple digits whipped those spots into major conflagrations . Three-inch-thick burning branches blew up to two miles ahead of the main fires . Flames swept over thousands of acres in several hours ' time , creating a smoky miasma around Idaho 's capital city . The buzz at the wildfire nerve center intensified dramatically . `` Fortunately we do n't work at this level all year , '' Hartigan said . `` It would be unbearable if we had to do this 365 days a year . '' The complex has taken on a military look . National Guard troops in camouflage fatigues march toward trucks for transportation to the fire lines . Smoke jumpers sit in the shade of a building waiting for their next leap into 100-foot-tall ponderosa pines , laden with chainsaws or water pumps . `` We are definitely an assault organization , '' Hartigan said . `` It 's patterned after military operations because they work . We 're the supply lines for the troops . '' In the logistics center , specialists spin Lazy Susans with pink and blue requisition forms as each plea from the fire line is answered . The requests are for airplanes , helicopters , axes and shovels , portable marine pumps , hoses , fresh fruit , disposable sleeping bags , soft drinks and , most important , manpower . World War II Navy bombers _ PB-4Y2s and Neptunes _ are lined up on the flight deck , spattered with red retardant . They fill up again and again with thousands of gallons of `` slurry , '' a fertilizer-based substance that stops fires cold . Then the craft roar aloft toward the smoky mountains to the north . After five dry summers , backcountry timber has a moisture content only slightly higher than kiln-dried lumber , and strategists have settled in for a long campaign . It will take fall rains and winter snow to douse many of the nation 's fires . Until then , the lights will be on at the Fire Center , and the pace will be frenetic . `` It 's like Wall Street , it 's like an operating room , '' Jarvis says . `` Everybody knows it 's stressful , but they 're not snapping at each other . The key is cooperation . ''
extractive_keyphrases: wildfire battles worst blazes firefighting wildfire command post fire lines boise interagency fire center