Recovery crews moved into the damaged Longview paper mill on Wednesday morning after a chemical implosion at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility in Longview, Wash., killed two employees and left nine people unaccounted for. Officials said the operation had shifted from rescue to recovery after safety teams determined conditions were stable enough to proceed.
Scott Goldstein said the missing workers were in their workspaces when the blast hit during a shift change, when some employees were in break rooms and others were coming in or heading out. He said it was unlikely the missing people survived. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said he was bracing for the event to be the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington State history.
The scale of the damage was still being measured as crews worked through the site. Goldstein said newer estimates showed about 25,000 gallons of white liquor remained in the damaged tank, far below the 90,000-gallon estimate given on Tuesday. Longview Fire Battalion Chief Matt Amos said the work would continue slowly and deliberately, with responders treating victims with the greatest dignity, care and respect as they were recovered. He said anyone removed from the site would be decontaminated before being transferred to the Cowlitz County Coroner for identification and family notification.
The incident also raised environmental concerns beyond the plant gates. Officials said part of the Columbia River and nearby ditches were contaminated. Brian Wood said the facility's continuous monitoring for pH on outfalls to the Columbia River showed spikes of high pH material at about 7:15 in the morning on Tuesday and then again about two or three hours later, both times sending material from the plant site toward the river.
The emergency had already strained responders on Tuesday. A firefighter was sent to the hospital because of hazardous conditions and was later released around 7 p.m. Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, the focus had changed from finding survivors to recovering the dead, a turn that reflected both the force of the blast and the growing sense among officials that the missing workers were not coming home.
That is the hard truth now facing Longview: the death toll has already reached two, nine people remain unaccounted for, and investigators are still piecing together how a shift change at the plant became what may be the state's worst industrial disaster in modern memory.
