Nine people are still missing after a paper mill in Washington state exploded and sent 10 others to the hospital, including two patients who later died.
Officials said Tuesday night that there was no hope for survivors after a 900,000-gallon tank filled with white liquor at Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview ruptured at around 7:15 a.m. local time that day.
“At the moment, we are not aware of any rescues that are yet to be made that are being hampered by the situation at hand,” Cowlitz Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said at a press conference.
Officials initially believed about 90,000 gallons of white liquor, a chemical used in the paper-making process, remained inside the ruptured tank, posing a risk to first responders during recovery operations. It is now believed that, at most, about 25,000 gallons of the chemical remain in the tank.
“Crews are actively assessing the structural integrity of that tank, and working on plans to stabilize that tank before additional recovery operations can safely proceed,” Goldstein said. “Those are the situations and limitations that impact our access to portions of the facility.”
The Longview Fire Department wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday shortly before 12 p.m., local time, that recovery efforts for the day had begun.
“An inspection revealed the remaining product [in the tank] is a significantly smaller volume, allowing emergency responders to develop a plan to move forward to remove it,” the post read.
A total of 10 people were hospitalized with injuries following the explosion. Seven employees from the facility and one firefighter who responded to the explosion were wounded. There were also two fatalities.
“Our first responders and our emergency room workers, our nurses, and many people here, have seen truly unthinkable horrors today,” Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Washington Democrat, said at Tuesday’s press conference.
“As we pursue the dual imperative of getting answers, I’m profoundly encouraged by how many people are checking in on each other,” Perez added.
Officials said multiple people had chemical burns and other injuries from the blast.
Speaking of the white liquor, Battalion Chief Matt Amos with the Longview Fire Department told reporters Tuesday, “It would burn your skin. Basically, second to third degree burns.”
The identities of the victims and the cause of the blast have yet to be revealed.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said at the press conference, “Our thoughts and our prayers are with everybody impacted by this tragedy.”
“We also deeply appreciate the first responders and their tremendous work that they’re doing and have been doing to deal with an extremely, extremely challenging situation.”
Officials have maintained that there is no threat to the community.
“At this time there are no negative health impacts to air quality or the City of Longview’s drinking water system,” the Longview Fire Department said on Facebook Wednesday.
Goldstein told the press later Wednesday that water sample testing had confirmed “contamination entered the Columbia River” Tuesday. But he reiterated that there are no known health concerns to the public.
Representatives from the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been monitoring air and water quality.
Nippon Dynawave Packaging has around 550 employees at its pulp and paper mill, according to Washington’s Department of Ecology.
The mill makes about 280,000 tons of paperboard and wood pulp each year. It also has about 450 workers at its liquid packaging plant.
It’s unclear how many people were working at the plant during the explosion.
The state’s Labor and Industries Department said there are two inspections open at Nippon, but emphasized that they are not related to the explosion.
“One opened in March after an anonymous complaint over a valve on an aqua ammonia clarifier tank. It was not the tank that imploded,” the agency wrote on X Tuesday.
“The other opened in May after a complaint about a sinkhole created by a failed drain.”
