Emergency responders are working to establish how many people were killed when a chemical tank ruptured at a paper mill in Longview, Wash., on Tuesday, the authorities said.
An unknown number of employees at the mill, operated by the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company, remained unaccounted as efforts to recover bodies were underway, officials said. Ten people, including one firefighter, were injured, the authorities said.
“We have confirmed that there are fatalities but the exact number is undetermined,” Chief Scott Goldstein of Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue said at a news conference. The injuries range from “critical-severe to minor,” he said.
The rupture at the Nippon plant, which is about 45 miles northwest of Portland, Ore., and makes wood pulp and paper board for packaging and cartons, occurred shortly before 7:15 a.m. local time, the authorities said.
In a joint statement, Nippon and emergency authorities in Longview said a tank containing chemicals ruptured, causing “multiple critical injuries.”
The tank contained “white liquor,” the statement said, referring to a solution of sodium sulfide and sodium hydroxide that is used to make pulp out of wood chips, in a process that also involves high pressure and temperatures.
The fire department initially described the episode as a “major chemical explosion,” but said in a subsequent statement that the cause was an “implosion involving a vat of chemical treatment product” at the plant.
People with chemical burns and other injuries were taken to PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview and PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash.
A person who answered the phone at the Nippon mill declined to comment.
The Fire Department told residents to stay away from the plant, which sits near the Columbia River. Fire crews were working with hazardous materials teams, the department said.
Experts said that a fire at the Nippon mill in July 2023 caused air quality readings to reach unhealthy levels in Portland. Several wood chip piles, each of which is about the size of a football field, caught fire, a company official said at the time.
The 2023 fire was ruled an accident, but its cause remained unknown, according to an official report by Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue cited by The Columbian newspaper.
Firefighters also fought a blaze at a locomotive repair shop on the Nippon property in 2025. No injuries were reported in the 2023 or 2025 fires.