Recovery crews on Wednesday kept searching for nine people missing after a tank filled with a highly corrosive industrial chemical ruptured at a paper mill in Longview, Washington, leaving two people dead and seven injured. The accident at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility remained active and extremely hazardous, and officials said they did not expect to find any more survivors.
One injured person taken to hospital on Tuesday later died, bringing the confirmed death toll to two. The rupture sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of white liquor spilling from the tank, with about 25,000 gallons still inside and leaking slowly, according to officials. Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said authorities did not know where all nine missing people were, and crews continued to search the area that could be reached safely.
The plant sits about 130 miles south of Seattle and makes tissues, printer paper, cups, plates, cartons and other goods. The Washington State Department of Ecology says it employs 1,000 people. Officials said a large volume of contaminants entered the Columbia River, but local drinking water and air quality were unaffected.
Recovery work was suspended overnight because crews could not safely operate in the dark, then resumed early Wednesday morning. Matt Amos said the damaged tank created structural safety concerns and that crews had to move slowly and deliberately while treating every victim with dignity, care and respect. He also said responders were running into industrial hazards that made it unsafe to push equipment any further.
The rupture added a grim chapter to a site that already had a history of major trouble. In July 2023, a fire at the same facility burned piles of wood for days. This time, the danger came not from flames but from the chemical itself, and from the unstable tank still leaking after the blast of the rupture. The scene, officials said, remained too dangerous to assume anyone else could be saved.
