This is a developing story and will be updated.
The confirmed death toll from a chemical tank rupture in Longview has now climbed to two, officials said Wednesday morning, with another nine people presumed dead.
“We’re bracing ourselves for this being the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said Wednesday. The last major deadly workplace disaster in Washington was in 1943, when a health center fire killed 32 people.
The chemical release at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. reached the Columbia River on Tuesday, Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said Wednesday. Officials are still trying to understand scope and extent of environmental impact. Air quality and drinking water in Longview are not affected, he said.
Rescue crews are working to stabilize the site following the release of tens of thousands of gallons of a caustic chemical, the Longview Fire Department said. One worker was declared dead Tuesday after being evacuated to a local hospital, and a second evacuated person was confirmed dead Wednesday.
Brian Wood, director of support services for Nippon Dynawave, made the company’s first public remarks Wednesday. He thanked first responders and company’s workforce and union.
“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,” he said.
The fire department said nine victims of the tank rupture have yet to be recovered.
“As individuals are recovered they will undergo decontamination before being transported to the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office for identification and family notification,” the fire department said in a written statement. “The coroner’s office will release a list of names and provide a contact when all individuals have been recovered and family notifications are complete.”
Washington state Sen. Jeff Wilson, who lives in Longview, told OPB’s “Think Out Loud” on Wednesday that it’s safe to presume the nine missing people are dead.
“It is an enormous tragedy, a worst case scenario,” Wilson said. “Everybody is going to have a whole bunch of questions, as they should. Every one of those questions deserves to be answered. It’s going to take a little time.”
Federal and state investigators continued to arrive on the scene of Tuesday’s disaster, hoping to get answers about what caused the failure of a 900,000-gallon chemical tank. Their efforts to answer some of those larger questions remain stalled until emergency responders finish recovery efforts, which were paused Tuesday evening over concerns about the structural stability of the collapsed tank and an ongoing threat of exposure to corrosive chemicals.
“Recovery efforts will be slow, methodical and deliberate,” Longview Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Amos said Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board announced Wednesday it had opened an investigation into what the agency described as “the fatal chemical tank implosion.” Local fire officials referred to the tank rupture as a “failure” after previously calling the incident an “implosion.”
The independent federal agency, which is responsible for determining the causes following catastrophic releases of hazardous substances, has a team set to arrive in Longview.
“The CSB is opening an investigation into this tragic incident to determine how it happened and what can be done to prevent something like this from happening again,” the board’s chairperson Steve Owens said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Longview, said that an investigation is important but should not be allowed to be the “last straw for a viable mill.”
“Folks here have watched mill after mill close across this state, always wondering if their mill is next,” she said.
The congresswoman called for a plan to address failures “so we can have safe jobs, come home to our families at night, and rebuild public trust.”
The mill, purchased by the Japanese company Nippon from Weyerhaeuser in 2016 for $285 million, employs about 1,000 people, according to the Washington Department of Ecology. About 550 work in pulp and paper operations, and another 450 work at its liquid packaging plant, making cardboard milk cartons and other packaging.
Fire officials estimate the structurally unstable tank still held as much as 25,000 gallons of the corrosive compound known as white liquor, which is used to break wood chips into pulp to make paper. That’s less than initially thought, and the chemicals are continuing to slowly leak, officials said.
Wilson, who sometimes worked at the Nippon mill when he ran an environmental business, said recovery has also been hampered the complexity of the industrial site, which is criss-crossed by pipelines, powerlines and chemicals.
In addition to the confirmed deaths, seven people were hospitalized following the chemical release, including one firefighter.
Community leaders said there was no danger to the surrounding Cowlitz County community, although they asked people to stay clear of nearby dikes and ditches due to possible contamination.
The state Department of Ecology, which regulates air and water quality at the mill, is investigating any environmental consequences of the tank rupture.
Nippon Dynawave is a major employer in the Longview-Kelso area, where about 115,000 people live.
Tuesday’s deaths and injuries shook many people in the close-knit Cowlitz County communities. Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil in Longview Tuesday night, sharing prayers, songs and somber hope within one another.
