Search and rescue crews in Longview, Washington are facing a grim situation after a massive storage tank ruptured at a paper mill Tuesday, killing one worker and leaving nine others unaccounted for. Officials said Wednesday that hopes of finding survivors had essentially vanished.
The tank at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co held roughly 900,000 gallons of "white liquor," a caustic chemical mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used in kraft paper production. When it imploded, the liquid spilled into a drainage ditch and nine workers were injured in the blast.
Stabilizing the damaged tank has become the immediate priority before any recovery efforts can begin. Roughly 90,000 gallons of the volatile substance remain inside the ruptured vessel, which continues to pose a collapse risk and further chemical leakage. Crews are working only during daylight hours due to the extreme hazards involved.
"We don't know until we know, hopefully tomorrow, how we can stabilize the tank. Do we remove the product first? Do we stabilize the tank first or the vice versa?" said Scott Goldstein, a Cowlitz County fire chief, reflecting the complexity of the operation.
The sprawling Longview facility, which employs around 1,000 workers, produces material for tissues, printing paper, cups, plates and cartons. It sits along the Columbia River in a region with deep historical ties to the timber and paper industries.
Authorities have said the immediate community faces no threat, despite the chemical release. Longview has roughly 40,000 residents and is home to numerous other timber, paper and chemical operations.
At a vigil Tuesday night, dozens of community members gathered to pray and light candles. Crystal Moldenhauer, a Longview resident with friends at the plant, expressed the anguish rippling through the community. "We're all still waiting for answers," she said. "There's families that have been torn apart, and we don't know why."
The incident marks the second major chemical tank failure on the West Coast in recent days. Southern California experienced a mass evacuation after a damaged tank at an aerospace plant forced thousands from their homes.
Nippon Dynawave, a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Paper Group, faced safety complaints in March and May. The state's labor and industries department said neither was connected to Tuesday's collapse. One involved a valve on a different tank. Since 2021, the company has been fined $3,400 for three separate health and safety violations discovered by state inspectors.
Author James Rodriguez: "When a facility with a documented track record of safety issues suddenly kills workers and leaves nine missing, the questions about what went wrong go well beyond engineering and straight to accountability."
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