Cause of Fire That Burned Napavine Storage Facility Undetermined; No Injuries Reported

Firefighters from multiple Lewis County fire districts battled a blaze at a Napavine storage facility on Saturday night. 

The initial report of a fire came in at 8:23 p.m on June 3 at 115 Alder Ave. NW at Hilltop Storage behind Annie’s Napavine Country Market.

The first-arriving crews opened the main door of Unit H, which had smoke coming out of the upper eaves, to find a fire burning the upper mezzanine area inside, according to Lewis County Fire District 15 Chief Rich Underdahl, who was the incident commander on the scene. 

In addition to District 15, of Winlock, Lewis County Fire District 2, of Toledo; District 5, of Napavine; and District 6, of Chehalis and Adna, responded to help battle the blaze. 

Riverside Fire Authority also responded to provide an air unit. 

Napavine residents helped first responders put up caution tape on buildings around the blaze on Saturday night. The bystanders reported the fire had been going on for more than an hour as of 9:30 p.m. and that the aluminum units contained lumber, chemicals and propane, which could fuel the flames.

“We battled the fire for quite a while,” Underdahl said Monday. 

Crews started with an offensive tactic but after realizing how involved the fire was, crews switched to a defensive tactic to prevent the fire from spreading to another structure on the property and nearby businesses. 

Hot spots continued to flare up through Sunday morning, with crews fully extinguishing the fire by about 1 or 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, according to Underdahl. 

Firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading, but Unit H was a total loss. 

Underdahl said Monday he did not know how many people had items stored in that structure or the value of what was destroyed in the fire. 

A fire investigator was on scene Saturday night and continued work all day on Sunday, according to Underdahl. 

The cause of the fire had not been determined as of Monday afternoon. 

No injuries were reported.