A chemical tank ruptured before imploding at a Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility in the U.S. state of Washington on Tuesday. One death was confirmed while nine others remain unaccounted for with no hope for rescue, authorities said.
AP reports a joint written statement with Nippon and the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Department said a tank containing “white liquor,” a corrosive solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used in making paper pulp, had ruptured around 7:15 a.m. local time (1415 GMT).
“At the moment we are not aware of any rescues that are yet to be made,” Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said during a Tuesday evening news conference in which officials repeatedly referred to the situation as a recovery effort.
Community members hold photographs of loved ones during a vigil at R.A. Long Park following a fatal chemical storage tank failure on May 26, 2026 in Longview, Washington. (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty)
That effort would not resume until Wednesday morning, when emergency responders planned to work on stabilizing the collapsed tank, which still had about 90,000 gallons (more than 340,000 liters) of a chemical brew known as “white liquor” inside, and then search for the missing, Goldstein said per the AP report.
The severity of the injuries ranged from minor to critical, with some suffering burns or inhalation injuries, authorities said. Among those injured was a responding firefighter.
Reuters reports while the tank was initially believed to hold around 80,000 gallons, officials later said it contained closer to 900,000 gallons of white liquor, with an estimated 90,000 gallons of material still inside the damaged tank.