Firefighters quickly extinguished a small brush fire Wednesday afternoon south of Kalama, Cowlitz 5 Fire Chief Vic Leatzow said, but the tenth of an acre blaze could be a portent of a bad fire season.
The fire in the 4900 block of Green Mountain Road overlooking the Columbia River was reported over dispatch roughly around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Firefighters had contained and extinguished it soon after and were “just doing a lot of mop up” several minutes after 3 p.m., Leatzow said.
“We were ready to fly the rotor and bring the troops in,” he said, laughing. said.
It burned briefly in hilly rural field between Kalama and Woodland. It spread toward a shed and other structures, but the fire didn’t come within 100 feet of any structures. Firefighters from the State Department of Natural Resources and Fire Districts 1 and 2 went out to fight the fire as well, but Leatzow called them off once they realized the fire was easily manageable.