11 presumed dead in Washington state paper mill implosion

No survivors are expected to be found at a Washington state manufacturing plant after a chemical tank implosion, according to officials, who said Wednesday that a second death had been confirmed and that nine other people are presumed dead.

The 11 likely deaths in Tuesday’s implosion at the paper mill in Longview would make it the deadliest industrial accident in modern state history, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said.

Cowlitz County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said at a news conference Wednesday, “We have declared this incident a transition from rescue to recovery as of this morning.”

The implosion, which happened around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave plant, involved a tank built to hold 900,000 gallons of “white liquor,” a noxious chemical used in the paper-pulping process, officials said.

“We’re bracing ourselves for this being the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history. When you have a tragedy of that scale, the impact on individuals, on families and on communities is profound,” Ferguson said.

In addition to the nine people who have not been accounted for since the accident Tuesday morning, seven employees are hospitalized with injuries, officials said. An injured firefighter was treated and released.

“We have searched the area, the area that is searchable. We do not have the ability to state that we have located all nine, nor the ability to state where those nine were,” Goldstein said.

Images showed the spherical tank was partially collapsed and bowed to the side with a large side ripped open.

Washington State Chemical Plant Failure — Structural damage at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview, Wash., after a tank containing hazardous liquid imploded Tuesday.HOGP / City of Longview via AP

Goldstein said an employee shift change started about 15 minutes before the blast, “so there were many people in this area,” which he said included an administrative workspace, a break room space and operational spaces.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, D-Wash., said, “First responders, emergency workers and nurses saw unthinkable horrors yesterday.”

The tank held a chemical brew — used to convert wood chips to pulp — made up of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide and disodium carbonate, officials said.

“On-site recovery operations … continue to be slow, methodical and deliberate,” Longview Fire Battalion Chief Matt Amos said.

Goldstein said that the industrial disaster also resulted in contamination of the Columbia River but that there is no danger to the Longview City water supply. About a dozen dead carp had been recovered from a river dike, Ferguson said.

Search-and-rescue officials worked cautiously while they determined the stability of the ruptured tank holding the highly caustic chemicals, extending their operations.

The estimated 900,000-gallon tank was believed to be about 60% full at the time of the incident, Goldstein said.

Officials said a “conservative” estimate was that 550,000 to 570,000 gallons of the chemicals left the tank. Goldstein said he expected to learn more specifics once the cause of the implosion and other factors are determined.

To bolster the search and rescue, 46 members of the Washington National Guard were deployed to the site. They included 10 civil support team members to assist the state Ecology Department with air monitoring, Ferguson said. Thus far, there has been no evidence of airborne contamination, he said.

Twenty more members of the guard’s Homeland Response Force will help with decontamination, he said.

One of the workers killed at the plant was Gilbert Bernal, 52. His son, Eli, also worked at the plant.

Gilbert Bernal’s daughter, Geovana Bernal-Ferguson, said in an interview Thursday that the family never expected the accident. “I mean, this was an everyday, routine day,” she said.

Eli Bernal, who was working nearby and went to the plant, said there was a large cloud.

“Just that big steam cloud, it was everywhere. It was so vast, just like a cloud on the floor,” he said.

Their father was at first taken to the hospital in critical condition. The family was later informed that he died a short time afterward.

“We were told that he was very calm, which is just my dad,” Geovana Bernal said. “He’s always had that calmness in him.”

“He probably knew his fate, but it gives me peace of mind that he was so calm, because he was a godly man and knew that this was his time,” she said.

A young woman places an electric candle down among dozens of others at a makeshift memorial. — A vigil at R.A. Long Park in Longview on Tuesday for victims of the storage tank failure.Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / Getty Images

Authorities said that as they recover victims, the bodies must be decontaminated before they go to the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office for identification and family notification.

A number of inspections of the Nippon Dynawave plant remain open, said Joel Sacks, director of the state Labor Department. Paper mill plants are subjected to multiple regulatory inspections because of the chemicals and processes that are used.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, an independent nonregulatory federal agency, said it has opened an investigation into the cause of the incident.

According to the Ecology Department, Nippon Dynawave has about 550 employees, with 450 working in its liquid packaging plant.

Attempts to reach the company president, some supervisors and workers at the plant were unsuccessful.

Nippon Dynawave is a U.S. subsidiary of Nippon Paper Industries, based in Japan.

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