One killed and nine missing after chemical explosion at Washington paper mill

At least one person has been killed and nine others remain missing after a major chemical explosion at a paper mill in Longview, Washington. The blast happened at 07:15 PDT on Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility, about 130 miles south of Seattle. Emergency crews said the site remains unstable, and recovery work has been slowed by hazardous conditions.

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Authorities said the explosion was caused by a rupture in a tank containing white liquor, a corrosive chemical used in the paper-making process. The Longview Fire Department said a further nine people were injured, including eight employees and one firefighter. Officials later said the tank may have held about 900,000 gallons, with about 90,000 gallons possibly still inside the damaged vessel.

Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said earlier that 10 people had been injured and taken to hospital, with injuries ranging from critical severe to minor. The company said there were multiple critical injuries. Fire officials said the scene was stable but warned the public to stay away while firefighting and recovery efforts continued.

No identifying information about the dead or injured has been released pending family notifications. The incident has drawn attention because of the scale of the chemical release and the difficulty of working safely around the damaged tank. White liquor is an alkaline mixture containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, and officials described the conditions at the site as hazardous for emergency personnel.

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The presence of a large volume of chemical material has also raised questions about how long recovery operations may take. The paper mill is part of a wider industrial sector that relies on chemical processing, making safety procedures and containment systems central to operations. In this case, investigators initially believed the tank held about 80,000 gallons before officials revised that estimate sharply upward.

That change suggests the full scale of the incident is still being established as responders work through the site. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said state ecology workers had been sent to the area, indicating a broader state-level response alongside local fire crews. Officials have not said what caused the rupture, and it remains unclear whether the missing people are all employees or whether any have been located since the explosion.

The next developments to watch are the stabilisation of the tank, further casualty updates and any findings from investigators about how the failure occurred.

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