A rapid, coordinated response involving fire agencies from across Clark and Cowlitz counties, law enforcement, emergency management and state resources helped keep the Hidden Meadows Fire north of Battle Ground to about 12 acres, despite conditions that threatened nearby homes just hundreds of feet away.
The fire began around 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 24, near the Fargher Lake area, where limited access, heavy brush, timber and shifting winds created challenges for firefighters.
Fire District 10 Deputy Chief Galen Sarkinen said the incident demonstrated the importance of agencies being able to quickly bring additional resources to a fire outside their normal jurisdictions.
“In Clark County, all of the fire departments, there're eight fire departments in Clark County, they're all signatory to a countywide mutual aid contract,” Sarkinen said. “So what that means is, even if we don't touch borders with somebody, we'll go anywhere in the county to help somebody who needs the help.”
That agreement allowed agencies from across Clark County to respond as the fire grew. Sarkinen said the system is designed so the closest available resources can respond to an incident, regardless of which department's jurisdiction the fire is in.
At one point, the PulsePoint app showed 43 local fire units dispatched to the blaze.
“You won't see that very often,” Sarkinen said of the countywide agreement. “Usually it's just a seamless move up or what we call automatic aid to somebody that's on your border.”
The response also extended beyond Clark County.
Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue Chief John Nohr said Clark County has mutual aid agreements with neighboring counties, allowing additional resources to be requested when an incident exceeds what local agencies can comfortably handle.
“And then the counties have some mutual aid pacts between the counties,” Nohr said. “So we have a mutual aid pact with Cowlitz County, and so we can call on some Cowlitz County resources.”
Those agreements brought Cowlitz County resources to the Hidden Meadows Fire, including brush units and a strike team leader.
Sarkinen said Fire District 10 initially had limited staffing because the department relies heavily on volunteers, many of whom work during the day.
“On the initial response, it was just our first two staffed rigs that had two people on each rig,” Sarkinen said. “And then we had the initial incident commander, who was one of our volunteers who was covering as the district officer that day.”
As additional personnel became available, Fire District 10 was able to expand its presence while allowing mutual aid agencies to eventually return to their own districts.
“We were able to backfill,” Sarkinen said, adding that later in the evening more volunteers were available, allowing other fire districts to return home.
The fire's location added another layer of difficulty. Hidden Meadows and nearby neighborhoods have limited access, with some areas accessible by only one road.
“Hidden Meadow, one way in, one way out. Valley View, Mountain View, one way in, one way out,” Sarkinen said of the surrounding roads. “If that gets cut off, we've got ourselves a real problem.”
He described the incident as a textbook example of the wildland-urban interface, where homes and developed neighborhoods border areas of heavy vegetation. The Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation area included approximately 250 homes at one point.
“We talk a lot about the wildland-urban interface type stuff. This is it,” Sarkinen said of the Hidden Meadows Fire.
Getting resources to the fire quickly was particularly important because the fire was not initially associated with a residential address, making access more difficult for the first crews arriving.
“The earlier you call for help, the sooner they're going to get there,” Sarkinen said. “We have a lot of really great mutual aid partners.”
The response ultimately included resources from outside the immediate area. Sarkinen said a commissioner from Cowlitz County Fire District 7 contacted him to offer assistance, and a strike team of engines from Cowlitz County was sent to the fire.
Aircraft also played a major role. Helicopters initially worked from nearby water sources, and a larger helicopter from Olympia was brought in because it could carry substantially more water.
“That one held way more water, like five times the amount of water,” Sarkinen said.
Two large air tankers also responded, with one coming from Moses Lake and another from Olympia. Each made a retardant drop that helped establish a line on the far side of the fire, Sarkinen said.
The response was not limited to firefighting operations, which is often an overlooked portion of wildland fires near urbanized areas.
Nohr said emergency management volunteers from the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, or CRESA, worked behind the scenes at an evacuation site established at Charter Oak Community Church.
“There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that when something's on fire, what you see are the red rigs and the yellow shirts running around and pulling hoses, putting water on the fire,” Nohr said. “But it's all of the other things happening in the background that need to happen.”
CRESA's Community Emergency Response Team volunteers helped track evacuees and vehicles, including recording license plate numbers so officials could determine whether people who remained in an area had safely evacuated or had been transported elsewhere.
“So we just want to make sure we're able to follow up on people and see where they're at, just kind of check them in,” Nohr said.
Law enforcement also became a major part of the response as evacuations were ordered.
Nohr said one of the incident commanders involved in the operation, who had nearly 30 years of experience, told him he had never seen such strong coordination between law enforcement and fire agencies during an incident of that type.
“CCSO went above and beyond in their quickness of going around, making contact at all of these houses, attempting to get people out, hanging right there at the command post, being that instant communication to the law enforcement side,” Nohr said of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Sarkinen said the Clark County Sheriff's Office ultimately sent 33 deputies to the area, helping keep evacuation routes clear and giving firefighters room to operate.
“The Sheriff's office, I think their post on Facebook said they ended up sending 33 deputies out here,” Sarkinen said. “But yeah, they did an excellent job of making sure we had the space and notifying.”
Fire crews also divided their efforts between attacking the fire and protecting structures that were most at risk.
“There’s a lot of actions, but two major actions is the people that are jumping on the fire and trying to get a ring around the fire, a line around the fire, put the fire out, knock it down, hold the heat down, keep the embers down and contain it and eventually extinguish it,” Nohr said.
“The second group were the folks in the fire engines, the big fire engines that you're used to seeing around town,” Nohr added. “And they were staged in driveways to protect houses that we thought were most at risk.”
The coordinated response included local fire agencies, Cowlitz County resources, the Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies, CRESA, the Washington Department of Natural Resources and aerial resources from outside the region.
Nohr said the outcome was possible because agencies quickly recognized the potential threat and established a unified structure for the response.
“Everybody came together quickly, recognized the issue, was able to get resources en route and on scene and do what we call dividing it up or put in proper divisions so that you have the right people in the right places and the right command structure for who's answering to who to make it happen,” Nohr said.
The fire ultimately remained at about 12 acres. Nohr said the relatively small size should not diminish the significance of the response.
“What happened is we did a good job and we held it,” Nohr said.
For Sarkinen, the incident underscored both the value of mutual aid and the growing importance of preparing for wildfires near residential neighborhoods.
“The earlier you call for help, the sooner they're going to get there,” he said.
As more homes are built among timbered lots, Sarkinen said the Hidden Meadows Fire may not be the last large wildland incident Fire District 10 faces.
“This was the first big one that I've been a part of inside District 10,” Sarkinen said. “It's probably not going to be the last as we get more and more homes built inside of timbered lots.”
