Clark County Fire & Rescue announced Friday that it is changing its name to Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue to better reflect the areas it serves.
Woodland was annexed into the fire district in August, which is located in both Clark and Cowlitz counties, and the district’s firefighters also have a partnership with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, so “it makes good sense to add Cowlitz to our name,” Chief John Nohr said.
The fire district has been serving Woodland since 2013 through an annual contract. The city’s annexation makes it a permanent part of the fire district. Most of the city’s population lives in Cowlitz County.
The Cowlitz Indian Reservation, which was established in northwest Clark County in 2010, has also received contracted services through the fire district for five years. In addition to the ilani casino, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe plans to expand its tribal services with new senior housing on the reservation, according to the fire district.
Annexations and mergers are becoming more common throughout the country as residents look to get more for their emergency services dollars, Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue said in a news release. There have been more than 25 district mergers and annexations in Washington since 2017.
“People recognize that modern technology allows our fire departments to be better managed with fewer administrators. We don’t need the redundancy of several small fire districts or city fire departments, each with their own fire chief, assistant chiefs and management staff. Mergers and annexations reduce overhead costs and allows precious emergency services dollars to be spent putting firefighters/paramedics on fire engines, so we can provide a better service to our citizens,” Nohr said.
Clark County Fire & Rescue was established in 2008 when two fire districts, Clark County Fire District 11 and Clark County Fire District 12, merged to form one large fire district. Several other fire districts have annexed into the district and its predecessor departments over the years.
Currently, Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue encompasses over 125 square miles of northwest Clark County and southwest Cowlitz County, and stretches from 179th Street and Northeast Salmon Creek Avenue to Dike Road in Woodland. It also stretches east to state Highway 503 and Lewisville Park.
All of the fire stations and response units will remain in the same locations, Nohr said. Some of the decals on the district’s vehicles have already been changed to a new design, but that will be an ongoing effort, he said.
The name change isn’t yet official, however. The district’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Thursday in support of the change, but state law dictates that the county with the most area in the fire district has to approve the new name, Nohr said. The chief said the process is largely procedural; he does not expect the name to be rejected.
