Washington Paper Mill Tank Implosion Leaves Up to 11 Feared Dead, Rescue Efforts Continue
Rescue crews returned Wednesday to the wreckage of a Washington state paper mill where a massive chemical tank imploded, as officials said there is “no hope” of finding the remaining missing workers alive.
Authorities now fear 11 people may have died in the disaster at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. plant in Longview after a second injured victim died, according to officials. Nine workers remain unaccounted for following Tuesday’s rupture of a tank holding more than 500,000 gallons of “white liquor,” a corrosive chemical used in paper production.
Search efforts were briefly halted over fears the damaged tank could collapse again. Crews later determined the structure was stable enough to continue after finding it contained less liquid than originally believed. Officials said the operation will proceed slowly as responders work through the hazardous site.
The blast also injured eight others, including a firefighter who was treated and released from hospital. The accident occurred in Longview near the Washington-Oregon border, a city of about 40,000 with deep ties to the timber and paper industry along the Columbia River.
Officials said testing so far shows no threat to Longview’s drinking water or air quality, though some contamination reached the Columbia River and monitoring continues. If confirmed, it could rank among the deadliest US workplace accidents in recent years, compared with a Tennessee explosives plant blast that killed 16, a 2013 Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11.
The Washington tragedy came days after another West Coast chemical emergency in Southern California, where a failed cooling system likely triggered a hazardous leak at an Orange County aerospace facility, prompting the evacuation of about 50,000 residents from Thursday through Tuesday over explosion fears.
