A fire on a rural property near La Center, Wednesday, Aug. 16, drew a large firefighter response, though luckily for the surrounding area, only buildings on the property were lost in the 34-acre blaze.
As of Friday morning, Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue Chief Ben Peeler said the fire was 100% contained. The fire was still not completely “controlled,” which Peeler explained was a designation given to a blaze where firefighters have advanced a certain point past the containment line.
The fire was first alerted to emergency personnel Wednesday afternoon on a property in the 37000 block of Northeast Jenny Creek Road. A cause of the fire has yet to be identified, Peeler said. The homeowners were not at home when the fire began.
Although the blaze claimed the home and several outbuildings, it did not engulf structures on other properties, Peeler said. He noted one home near the fire was successfully saved due to preventative efforts.
Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency initially announced a top-level evacuation order for a half mile around the property shortly before 6 p.m. Aug. 16. It had grown to more than a mile radius about an hour later. By the following day, the order was downgraded, and by Friday no areas required immediate evacuation.
One evacuee, BJ Jarvis, said watching the blaze push further against his property Wednesday was scary.
“I’m in such a hurry and a panic that it’s, you know, I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off and trying to get out of here safely,” he said. “Watching my family farm kind of, you know, at risk because I’m on the back side of that fire is something else, man.”
“I’m just glad that I could get out in time,” Jarvis said. “I hope that everybody else does, too, and I hope that everybody gets to be out and safe. That’s primarily my concern at this point.”
During the height of the fire response, as many as 100 personnel were on hand, with 75 actively taking care of the remaining blaze as of Friday, Peeler said.
Among those on-scene, Peeler said, dozens of firefighters were Larch Corrections Center inmates. The minimum-security prison has served as a resource through the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for fighting wildland fires, including the Nakia Creek fire last year that burned more than 1,900 acres on the east side of the county.
Alongside CCFR and the DNR, every fire agency in Clark County and several from Cowlitz County responded, going as far north as Castle Rock, Peeler said. Although helicopters are usual for fighting wildfires in the area, Peeler said the presence of fixed-wing aircraft was an unusual sight for him.
He mentioned that one private individual offered his mechanical equipment to help dig a trench to help contain the fire. Peeler said that the work of that man, who the fire district has yet to identify, was integral in efforts to contain the blaze at the northern end.
La Center Mayor Tom Strobehn said the first day was very hectic for everybody involved in the fire response, but he couldn’t be more proud. From first responders’ diligence, to ilani Casino Resort providing rooms for a few families that evacuated for a discounted price, to Wal-Mart employees who opened up the store for Strobehn and his son right before closing so he could purchase blankets for those affected, Strobehn said everybody showed great compassion and understanding.
“These are the things we do for others,” he said.
The fire striking central Clark County was out of the ordinary for such a large area impacted. Peeler expected such fires to become more of a norm with the county experiencing more blazes as a result of a changing climate.
“It doesn’t matter what the cause is, these fires are going to get more frequent” because of climate change, Peeler said.
Reporters Rick Bannon, Cade Barker and editor Jessica Keller contributed to this report.
