The death toll from a devastating chemical spill at a paper manufacturing plant in Washington state has risen to 11 after rescuers confirmed the recovery of all nine missing workers, US authorities said on Saturday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company facility in Longview, Washington, when a massive storage tank containing a highly caustic substance suddenly imploded, triggering a large-scale emergency response and search operation.
Fire officials confirmed the final recovery during a press briefing.
“We have recovered the ninth and final missing employee of this incident,” said Brad Hannig, fire chief of the Longview Fire Department.
The disaster initially left two workers confirmed dead and nine others missing, prompting an intensive multi-agency search effort involving emergency responders and hazardous materials teams.
According to officials, the accident happened during an early morning shift change when a 900,000-gallon tank holding a chemical known as white liquor ruptured.
White liquor is a highly alkaline industrial solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, commonly used in the paper production process to break down wood chips into pulp.
Authorities described the incident as one of the most severe industrial accidents in the region in recent years, given the scale of the chemical release and the number of workers affected.
Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a subsidiary of Japan’s Nippon Paper Group, operates a major production facility that manufactures billions of single-serve paper-based containers annually for markets across North America, Asia, and other regions.
The company has not yet issued additional public details on the cause of the tank failure, while investigations into the incident remain ongoing.
Emergency services said recovery efforts were complicated by the hazardous nature of the spilled substance and the structural instability of the affected facility.
Officials are expected to continue safety assessments at the site as regulators work to determine whether maintenance failures, equipment defects, or operational errors contributed to the disaster.
The tragedy has raised renewed concerns over industrial safety standards in chemical processing and manufacturing facilities across the United States.
Authorities have pledged a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident and potential regulatory breaches.
