LONGVIEW, Wash. — Editor's note: The fire continued to burn Thursday, although the response was scaled down.
Fire crews on Wednesday have contained a fire that broke out Tuesday night at the Nippon Dynawave lot in Longview, Washington to a "very large chip pile," the Longview Fire Department reported.
The fire department said it has had three aerial streams focused on the fire throughout the day Wednesday and a helicopter has been dumping 2,500-gallon buckets of water onto the pile from overhead. Nippon Dynawave is also assisting in the fire suppression effort by bringing in private contractors who are using large equipment to pull "the chip piles apart so that the deep-seated fires can be extinguished," the fire department reported on its Facebook page.
Fire crews responded to the fire at 6:39 p.m. Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave property, located at an industrial complex in Longview that Nippon shares with the Weyerhaeuser paper mill. Industrial Way was closed in both directions from Washington Way to Oregon Way on Tuesday night but has all roads were back open by Wednesday, fire officials told KGW.
Longview Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway said the Longview Fire Department and Cowlitz Fire and Rescue arrived to the fire first and after seeing the size of the fire, called in other agencies from Cowlitz and Clark counties.
On Tuesday night, fire officials said the fire had been contained to the property but asked residents to stay inside and keep doors and windows closed due to smoke from the fire, which spread across the area, including south into Multnomah County, causing poor air quality throughout the area Wednesday.
RELATED: Smoky skies in Portland: Longview fire creating 'unhealthy' air quality in Portland, Vancouver
All workers and fire crews were accounted for with no injuries.
"There has been some equipment on site that was damaged but again we are surrounding it and we are working the fire," Dunaway said Tuesday night. "This is going to be a long-term incident in terms of being able to get through the piles and apply water and put the fire out."
No information has been released as to what caused the fire.
"There will be an investigation at some point. That’s going to be much later into this incident," Dunaway said Tuesday night.
Longview fire in Cowlitz County
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Download the KGW News app: Download for iPhone here | Download for Android here
Stream newscasts for free on KGW+ on Roku and Amazon Fire: How to add app to your device here
See a typo in this article? Email web@kgw.com for corrections