At least 1 dead and 9 missing after a chemical tank rupture at a paper plant in Washington state

CNN

By Emma Tucker, Alisha Ebrahimji, Hanna Park, CNN

(CNN) — At least one person has died, nine people were injured and nine employees remain unaccounted for after a large tank of chemical treatment product, including hazardous materials, ruptured at a paper and packaging facility in Washington state, fire officials said.

The incident took place around 7:30 a.m. local time at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. facility in Longview, Washington. The ruptured tank contained white liquor, a chemical mixture used in the paper making process, the Longview Fire Department said. Officials previously said the tank imploded.

There is no threat to the surrounding community, the department said, while advising people to avoid the area. The scene remains active but recovery and stabilization efforts remain “extremely complex” due to ongoing safety hazards, said Scott Goldstein, fire chief of Cowlitz 2 Fire Rescue at a news conference Tuesday night.

The injured include eight employees and one firefighter, who has since been treated and released, fire officials said. At a news conference earlier in the day, they said “there were fatalities” related to the implosion.

CNN has reached out to the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. facility for comment on the incident.

While officials originally said the tank had capacity to hold 80,000 gallons and was roughly 60% full, they later said the tank held over 10 times that amount of white liquor – approximately 900,000 gallons. Roughly 90,000 gallons of material may remain inside the damaged tank, they said.

The accident is the latest in a spate of incidents at industrial facilities, mills and plants in recent months, some of which have also been deadly.

Just this past week, officials raced to prevent an overheating chemical tank in California from exploding, prompting tens of thousands of residents to evacuate until pressure in the tank was reduced, eliminating the risk of a catastrophic blast. In April, a chemical leak involving nitric acid and another substance at a West Virginia plant killed two people and injured over a dozen others, The Associated Press reported.

In October of last year, more than 24,000 pounds of explosives detonated at a Tennessee explosives plant, killing 16 employees and making a blast so intense it registered as a 1.6 magnitude earthquake. And two months earlier, an explosion at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania killed two workers and injured more than 10 others, one of whom was trapped in rubble, the AP reported.

A spokesperson for PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center told CNN the hospital initially received nine patients, including one person who died in the Longview incident and four others who were transferred to a burn center in Portland. Three patients were later discharged from PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center, and one remaining patient is in fair condition, Jim Murez, the hospital’s communications manager, told CNN in an update.

Longview is about 50 miles north of Portland and about 130 miles south of Seattle. The Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. facility employs about 1,000 people at its pulp and paper mill and packaging plant. The facility treats its wastewater and sends it to the Columbia River, according to Washington’s Department of Ecology.

Safety concerns complicate recovery efforts

Recovery operations have been delayed because some areas of the site are inaccessible due to ongoing safety concerns at the Longview facility, Longview Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Amos said at Tuesday evening’s news conference.

The tank remains unstable, creating “hazardous conditions” for emergency responders, Goldstein said at the news conference.

Recovery efforts will resume Wednesday morning, once conditions allow crews to safely continue, he said.

Local, regional and state agencies are coordinating with facility staff to “structurally reinforce and stabilize the site” and help with recovery efforts, which can safely resume on Wednesday morning, the fire department said.

The recovery efforts “remain focused on safely accessing all affected areas of the facility, recovering victims and supporting impacted families, while ensuring responder safety due to the instability of the site,” said Amos.

All impacted families have been notified, he said. Two parents who said their sons worked at the plant interjected near the end of the news conference to say they hadn’t been contacted, according to the AP.

The state’s Department of Ecology has a spills team on site to monitor air and water quality, according to spokesperson Brittny Goodsell.

While responders have not detected a spike in air quality issues, an additional air monitoring team is headed to the facility to support the efforts, Goodsell said.

“We currently don’t have concerns for public health outside of the scene at this time,” she said.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said state officials will be at the site “to do everything we can to help the situation,” adding: “We’ll be here as long as it takes.”

The state has been in “constant contact” with local responders to offer support and has mobilized the state’s National Guard civil support team, said Ferguson, a Democrat. The Department of Health is assisting with emergency medical logistics, he said.

As search and recovery efforts continued, community members gathered Tuesday evening in Longview for a vigil honoring the victims and those still missing. Some held candles as they bowed their heads in prayer. Faith leaders led prayers for families and first responders, urging unity.

“We’re here this evening because when one of us grieves, we all grieve,” said Pastor Mark Schmutz of Northlake Church.

Longview resident Crystal Moldenhauer told the AP she has friends who work at the plant and remained unaccounted for. She described a stressful day of people calling and texting each other trying to figure out what happened.

“We’re all still waiting for answers … There’s families that have been torn apart, and we don’t know why,” she said.

What is white liquor?

White liquor is a chemical mixture used to break down wood chips during the paper-making process. The liquid is highly caustic and can cause second- and third-degree burns if contacted on the skin, the fire battalion chief said at the news conference.

Inhaling concentrated vapor around the liquid can also be dangerous, though it primarily acts as an irritant if in the air, he added.

Goldstein said roughly 500,000 gallons of liquid were released and mixed with water from a ruptured on-site fire main, all of which “is remaining on site.”

Officials saw “an initial increase in the pH level” in a few nearby waterways and shut down dike system pumps in those areas “to keep it contained there,” Goldstein said, asking residents to avoid dikes and ditches between Washington Way and Prudential Boulevard.

Open inspections unrelated to implosion

There are two ongoing inspections at the facility that are unrelated to the implosion, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

One was opened in March after the department received an anonymous complaint over concerns “about a valve on an aqua ammonia clarifier tank,” which is not the same tank that ruptured, according to the agency.

The other was opened in May after receiving a complaint about a sinkhole created by a failed drain, the agency said.

State officials cited the site for violations after three other inspections in the last five years that were not related to “chemical process or storage safety” but had to do with fall protection and failure to wear face coverings, the agency said.

The third violation said the employer “did not ensure employees were provided a workplace free from recognized hazards causing, or are likely to cause, serious injury or death,” according to the inspection report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Andi Babineau contributed to this report.