Second employee dies as 9 remain missing after chemical tank rupture in Longview

May 27-OLYMPIA - A second person died from injuries after chemical tank ruptured at a pulp and paper mill in Longview, Washington, first responders said during an update Wednesday afternoon.

Nine employees remain unaccounted for as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said the response to the accident at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging mill Tuesday morning transitioned from a rescue to a recovery operation on Wednesday .

"On behalf of NDP, these are our people. We are focused on our people. We are focused on helping our responders find and recover those people. That is our focus today," Brian Wood, director of support services for Nippon Dynawave Packaging, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Wood said the company will cooperate "to the maximum extent that we can" with investigations into the explosion.

"It is our duty and our obligation to do so," Wood said. "We look forward to a full and complete investigation."

Matt Amos, a battalion chief with the Longview Fire Department, said Wednesday that recovery efforts will "continue to be slow, methodical and deliberate."

"The priority is ensuring responder safety while treating every victim with the greatest dignity, care and respect as possible," Amos said.

Amos said recovery operations remain "extremely hazardous."

"Recovery operations will continue as the conditions safely allow," Amos said.

Seven employees remain in area hospitals. One individual who was transported from the scene on Tuesday has since died from their injuries.

The incident occurred at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility. The explosion happened just after a shift change near an area of the plant that also was used for administrative purposes and a breakroom.

Goldstein said first responders are not aware of any video recording of the explosion.

The tank contained white liquor, a chemical mixture of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide, and disodium carbonate used in the paper-making process.

Exposure to the liquid can cause second and third-degree burns and can be dangerous when inhaled in large quantities.

The tank was about 60% full. Officials now believe approximately 25,000 gallons of material remain in the 900,000 gallon tank and believe the tank is stable. Goldstein said the remaining material is leaking "slowly out of the tank, slower this morning than it was yesterday evening."

"Roughly 550,570 thousand gallons of product left the tank," Goldstein said. "The specifics of that will come as the root cause, and the root factors, are determined in the future."

Goldstein said that crews have identified the need for "additional capabilities" to assist in the recovery process.

"I have the assurance, and I am very confident in the support provided to us by the state, as well as our federal partners, that if we need something, we will get it, to have the resources here," Goldstein said.

Goldstein said additional testing has shown that some of the material entered the nearby Columbia River, and "additional evaluations" are ongoing to understand the scope of how much material entered the river.

"At this time, there continues to be no identified negative health impacts to the surrounding air quality or the city of Longview's drinking water system," Goldstein said.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said Wednesday that he is bracing for the incident to be the deadliest industrial tragedy in the state's modern history.

"When you have a tragedy of that scale, the impacts on individuals, on families and on communities is profound," Ferguson said. "I want to extend my deepest condolences to those who have been directly impacted by the loss of a loved one during this extraordinarily challenging time."

Ferguson said 46 members of the Washington National Guard are on site to aid in the response, including 10 members of the civil support team who are working with the state Department of Ecology to monitor the air quality in the area.

"Those results show no evidence of airborne contamination," Ferguson said.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents southwest Washington in Congress, said during a news conference Wednesday that "we can't look past the grief."

"It is so easy to look past the pain and suffering here and try to solve problems before we understand the depth of loss here," Gluesenkamp Perez said. "And so I'm so grateful for the team here who has remained doggedly focused on recovery, and the safety and security of our land and our families and our community, as we endure an unthinkable tragedy."

Joel Sacks, director of the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, said Wednesday the agency would conduct a full investigation of the explosion.

Matt Ross, a spokesperson for the agency, said Wednesday investigators are currently on the scene. Ross said investigations can typically take up to six months to complete, with results publicly released afterwards.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board announced it had opened an investigation into the implosion. According to the announcement, the board is an independent, nonregulatory agency that investigates incidents that result, or may result, in the "catastrophic release of extremely hazardous substances."

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