11 presumed dead in Washington state paper mill implosion as rescue shifts to recovery
No survivors are expected to be found at a Washington state manufacturing plant after a chemical tank implosion, according to officials, who on Wednesday said that a second death had been confirmed and that nine others are presumed dead. The 11 likely deaths in Tuesday’s implosion at the paper mill in Longview would make it the state’s deadliest industrial accident in modern history, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said. “We have declared this incident a transition from rescue to recovery as of this morning,” Cowlitz County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said at a news conference Wednesday. The implosion happened around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Plant and 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 impacts on individuals, on families, and on communities is profound…
27 May 00:00 · Inlandnewstoday