Officials on Wednesday were seeking to account for nine missing workers one day after a tank imploded at a paper mill in southern Washington State, killing at least two people and injuring eight others.
Although it was unclear exactly where the missing might be, Officials said on Tuesday that they did not believe anyone was still alive inside the facility and that they were in a recovery phase, rather than rescue, working “to return all of the workers to their families.”
Those efforts have been complicated by the release of about 500,000 gallons of a highly caustic chemical at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant in Longview, Wash., near the Oregon border, about 45 minutes north of Portland. The plant makes wood pulp and paper board for packaging and cartons.
The Longview Fire Department said the 900,000-gallon chemical tank imploded just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Officials said later that about 90,000 gallons of materials remained inside the tank and hindered the recovery efforts, which had been expected to resume on Wednesday morning.
After the implosion, the cylindrical tank that failed had collapsed on one side, its walls folding in under the weight of the structure.
On Wednesday morning, tanker trucks rolled in and out of the plant’s parking lot, along with fire and rescue trucks and a vehicle with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Local officials said there was no direct risk to the surrounding community, but they urged residents to avoid the area or nearby ditches that might contain the chemical.
Eight employees and one firefighter were initially taken to hospitals, some with severe injuries, officials said. One of those workers has since died. The firefighter has been released, Matt Amos, a shift battalion chief with the Longview Fire Department, said on Tuesday.
The chemical that was released is known as “white liquor,” a solution mainly of sodium sulfide and sodium hydroxide that helps break down wood chips into pulp. It can cause second- or third-degree burns on contact with skin and can be dangerous if inhaled, Mr. Amos said on Tuesday.
The cause of the implosion was not known on Wednesday. But the plant has received fines for running afoul of environmental regulations, and twice in the last three months, employees or their union representative filed complaints over safety concerns to the state’s Department of Labor and Industries.
In March, the complaintsreported that a drain had failed and was creating a sinkhole. In May, a complaint expressed concern related to a valve for an aqua ammonia clarifier tank. The department is still investigating both concerns, but neither is directly related to the tank that failed, according to Matt Ross, a spokesman for the department.
Last year, an incident led to the amputation of a worker’s finger, according to OSHA records. After that, the company was cited by the state workplace safety monitoring agency for moving equipment before the accident could be investigated, records showed.
Nippon Dynawave Packaging has declined to comment.
Mark Walker and Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.