MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
U.S. fire officials have raised the national wildfire preparedness level to its highest point - 5 out of 5. Chris Clements of member station KNAU reports.
CHRIS CLEMENTS, BYLINE: Lenore Lamb is a supervisor on the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan. Today, she's assigned to a federal team managing fires in northern Minnesota. She says when the U.S. reaches Level 5...
LENORE LAMB: It becomes a little bit more difficult to get the resources that you need because there's so much fire activity.
CLEMENTS: Specifically, federal resources - think firefighters and logistics and financial specialists. At Level 5, they can start being triaged to the fires where they're needed most. Right now, almost 21,000 people are working to fight 72 large uncontained fires across the country.
LAMB: For Minnesota, you know, as resources get spread thin nationwide, it can make it difficult to rely on out-of-state crews, as many other states may be trying to keep their resources in state as well.
CLEMENTS: For now, Lamb says her team has the resources it needs, but that might not be true in the days and weeks ahead. The new U.S. Wildland Fire Service did not respond to an interview request for this story.
Bobbie Scopa is a retired firefighter and vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a nonprofit advocacy group.
BOBBIE SCOPA: You have to start really making tough decisions.
CLEMENTS: Scopa's experience includes helping to prioritize fires across two states. Occasionally, she asked for more national support.
SCOPA: When you've got a lot of fires, and you're told you've got everything you're going to get, you're not going to get anymore, I mean, it's a tough feeling.
CLEMENTS: It's tough, she says, because local fire managers can't expect their own teams to take on more risk just because federal resources aren't available.
SCOPA: The public and the politicians need to have a realistic expectation about what we can really do. There's going to be some fires that you don't have enough people to be effective.
CLEMENTS: She wishes the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies would hire more firefighters and support personnel to help with intense seasons like this one. And because climate change means fire seasons are getting longer, Scopa doesn't anticipate this one letting up anytime soon.
SCOPA: The firefighters are going to be chasing smokes until October just because that's just the way it is.
CLEMENTS: For NPR News, I'm Chris Clements in Flagstaff.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOWERCASE NOISES' "THE HUNGRY YEARS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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