Hope fades for nine missing after fatal paper mill tank implosion in Washington state | Washington state

The death toll from a tank explosion at a paper mill in Washington state on Tuesday has risen to two, with nine people still missing and presumed dead, officials said.

One person who was transported to the hospital following a disaster at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. on Tuesday morning has died, the Longview Fire Department said Wednesday afternoon.

The agency said rescue efforts at the facility would begin Wednesday, following a delay due to “safety concerns regarding the structural integrity of the damaged tank.” Authorities said there was no hope of finding any other survivors.

The incident began when an industrial tank ruptured and released white liquor, a highly destructive chemical mixture used in the paper industry. Following the initial incident, authorities confirmed one person was killed and nine others were injured, including a firefighter who responded to the scene.

Before the bodies of the missing people are found, the crew must stabilize the tank, which risks further collapse and further leaks of caustic liquid. Officials said they would only work during daylight hours due to dangers.

“The investigation revealed that the remaining product was in a significantly smaller volume, which allowed emergency responders to develop a plan to remove it,” the fire department said.

The cause was unknown, but officials said there was no threat to the community, a Columbia River city of about 40,000 people with long ties to the Washington and Oregon paper and lumber industries.

It was the second significant chemical tank failure on the west coast in as many days, after thousands of Southern California residents were evacuated due to tank damage at an aviation facility.

The sprawling Longview factory, which employs about 1,000 people, produces materials for tissue paper, printing paper, cups, plates and cartons. The facility is located right on the river, next to other lumber, paper and chemical businesses.

The paper mill’s tank held approximately 900,000 gallons (3.4 million liters) of liquid, consisting mostly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. Known as “white liquor,” the substance is used to break down wood with heat to make kraft paper, a durable material used in packaging, shopping bags and other products.

The tank still holds about 90,000 gallons (more than 340,000 liters) of the volatile liquid, Cowlitz County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said Tuesday night.

“We won’t know until we figure out how to balance the tank tomorrow. Do we take the product out first? Do we balance the tank first, or vice versa?” Here’s what Goldstein said:

After the tank burst, liquid spilled into a drainage ditch, said Brittny Goodsell, a spokeswoman for the state ecology department. Officials said there are no problems with air quality or drinking water in Longview but urged the public to stay away from ditches and levees while the area undergoes water testing.

The Washington state department of ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are overseeing operations to determine environmental impacts related to the incident, the fire department said.

Dozens of people gathered to pray, light candles and embrace loved ones at a community vigil Tuesday night.

Longview resident Crystal Moldenhauer said she had unnamed friends at the facility. He said people were calling and texting each other all day trying to figure out what was happening.

“We are all still waiting for answers,” he said. “There are families torn apart and we don’t know why.”

Security complaints were filed against Nippon Dynawave in March and May. The state’s department of labor and industry said in X that neither was relevant to the current situation. One of these was an anonymous complaint about a valve on the tank, stating that it was not the tank that exploded, according to the ministry.

Nippon Dynawave, a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Paper Group, was fined $3,400 for three separate health and safety violations detected by Washington labor and industry inspectors since the beginning of 2021, according to the department’s online database.

Forty-three people died According to an article published in late 2023 by a network of environmental justice organizations, from January 2021 to mid-October 2023 as a result of hazardous chemical incidents in the United States.