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Cowlitz County, WA - Crews were dispatched to the North Maple fire Wednesday afternoon at 4:50, the 4th brush fire of the day in the area.  Initial reports were that the fire was 60 feet by 30 feet in size, was near homes, and growing. The Chief officer responding struck a second alarm for the fire including resources from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and reported a fast moving fire, with homes threatened, approximated 2 plus acres upon their initial size up.  Cowlitz County Sheriff deputies began evacuation of homes in the Walker Rd area, with the help of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) reverse 911 system. Resources arrived on scene and attacked the fire and set up for structure protection on Wildlife Drive. Helicopter bucket drops, from the DNR, arrived and attacked the head of the fire near the homes threatened. An additional brush fire ignited nearby on Bodine Rd. and was assigned resources from the North Maple fire to manage. It was approximately 100 feet by 400 feet in size and included slash piles of brush and tree limbs.  Longview Fire and Fire District 5 (Kalama) resources were also part of the initial attack and structure protection efforts. Clark County Fire & Rescue also responded to Cowlitz County to help cover the District.

A Type Three Incident Management Team was established Wednesday night and began setting up for a multiple day operation including a State Mobilization request for more resources.  Crews continued to improve the fire line and thin out fuel loads with chainsaws, hand crews, and dozer operations until the late evening and remained on the fire overnight monitoring hot spots.  The approved requested resources arrived Thursday morning and implemented the Incident Action Plan set by the incident management team throughout the day containing the fire at 35% by 3pm. Fire officials estimated the size of the fire at 30-40 acres. Evacuation levels were also lowered to level 2, allowing people to return home but be in a ready state to leave again.  

More resources arrived from a Larch Mountain inmate hand crew Friday morning to assist with current resources returning.  Fire officials received GPS information gathered from a drone, provided by the DEM, and released the official size of the fire at 23.8 acres.  Fire crews had the fire line held at 70% containment at 11am on Friday morning, and is now fully contained. Fire officials state that all evacuation levels have been lifted.  All state resources demobilized Friday night around 5pm and returned home.  The DNR will have resources stay on scene patrolling the footprint of the fire for a few days to monitor.  

Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Fire Chief Dave LaFave comments on the Rose Valley Complex fire and the week of activity,  “This week’s state mobilization request is the earliest in the history of the state. There was a lot of hard work done by a number of agencies.  Along with that I want to mention that the best tool we have are the citizens. We need to consider the weather, whether there is a burn ban or not. This week is an example that it can happen any time; you would expect this activity in August not March.  All we need are higher temperatures, an East wind, low relative humidity and an ignition source and we have another week like this one.”