LONGVIEW — A proposal to include the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company into Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue’s district has ignited debate over whether the move would lengthen response times at the Industrial Way site.
Currently, the paper mill at 3401 Industrial Way receives fire services through a contract with Longview Fire Department and Cowlitz 2.
Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein told the department’s commissioners last month that Nippon’s “50-50 contract” — in which both fire agencies respond to incidents regarding large industrial fires or similar emergencies — expired in December 2023 and is on a 12-month extension.
A Nippon representative said the annexation is needed to receive better services as part of the taxing district than the paper mill receives through a contract.
Nippon Director of Support Services Brian Wood said at an Oct. 30 Cowlitz 2 Board meeting that contracted properties are considered secondary to the fire district.
The annexation petition comes in the wake of the July 2023 chip fire at Nippon, which took several days to fully extinguish and involved multiple fire agencies.
Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Board of Commissioners Chairperson Marisa Hutcheson said the board expects to make a decision in 2025.
How are fires prioritized?
Goldstein said Nippon submitted written documentation requesting annexation into the district in July.
Wood said Nippon employees should be considered as part of the public, just like other businesses and residences in the area. Nippon wants to be taxed to receive fire and emergency services, instead of contracting for them, as the prices would be comparable but the services would be better, Wood said.
“Annexation will ensure that the (Nippon) parcels see responses no less favorable than to other properties,” he said at the Oct. 30 meeting. “That is not currently the case. Under a contracted service, we are by contract, a secondary response.”
Eric Koreis, shift battalion chief at the Longview Fire Department and president of Local 3375 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, disagrees. He said Nippon’s perceived “secondary response” may be due to the 2023 chip fire’s prioritization being downgraded as the fire continued to smolder each day after the July 18, 2023, outbreak.
“That’s the way it should be,” he said. “No contract or annexation will change the fact that incidents are prioritized based on current risk factors and available resources.”
Wood also said that once part of the district, Nippon would receive mutual aid from other departments, which does not occur now.
Longer response times?
But several officials have concerns.
Goldstein of Cowlitz 2 told the company the change could delay arrival of first responders from Cowlitz 2, which covers over 145 square miles and about 37,500 people in the city of Kelso and the unincorporated areas around the city of Longview.
“I outlined to Nippon that (Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue) response time would be longer because we have to travel farther than either of the two Longview stations to provide fire apparatus to that location,” he said.
Apparatus can include a fire truck, ladder truck, medic unit, or even water tender.
Longview Fire Chief Brad Hanning said the department teamed up with Cowlitz 2 about a decade ago to provide Nippon services because Longview Fire could not handle covering the site alone.
Hanning reiterated that Nippon is treated the same as property inside the Longview Fire district, which covers nearly 15 square miles of urban and suburban areas in Longview, occupied by 36,100 citizens.
“We prioritize based on life safety first,” he said, “and prioritization happens within a city and outside; both our contracted areas are treated the same.”
Koreis added that the negotiating team has proposed adding language to Nippon’s agreement to show the facility is treated equally.
Hanning also read a statement by Koreis at the Oct. 30 meeting, stating the annexation would lead to reduced funding for Longview Fire, potentially resulting in budget cuts that affect specialized industrial training.
The training is “critical to ensuring the safety of our personnel and the effectiveness of our response during emergencies at Nippon,” the statement reads.
Dave Lamb, a firefighter from the Longview Fire Department, said officials are aware that neither Longview Fire nor Cowlitz 2 could handle the facility alone.
The Washington State Department of Ecology reports Nippon’s Longview pulp and paper mill has 550 employees, and makes about 280,000 tons of bleached liquid packaging paperboard and wetlap and slush pulp each year.
The liquid packaging plant has about 450 employees.
“We’ve known for a long time that there is absolutely no way that one department can do this job and that’s how we landed on the contract service agreement,” he said.
