Search teams on Friday found the body of another victim from Tuesday’s devastating chemical tank failure at a Washington state paper mill, bringing the confirmed death toll to 11 with two employees still missing.
The catastrophic incident occurred Tuesday morning when a massive storage tank holding over 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of wood-processing chemicals failed at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. facility in Longview, a Columbia River community. The tank’s failure unleashed a torrent of caustic liquid known as white liquor, which has enough force to flip pickup trucks and damage facility structures. The chemical mixture causes serious burns upon contact and can damage lungs if its fumes are breathed in.
Recovery operations have proceeded carefully and systematically due to hazards from remaining chemicals and other industrial dangers, according to Matt Amos, Longview fire battalion chief.
Search teams located six bodies on Thursday.
Workers are avoiding the area immediately surrounding the failed tank while collaborating with engineers to assess which damaged structures nearby can be safely accessed.
During body recovery, teams must decontaminate remains before transferring them to the coroner’s office for identification. The search personnel also undergo decontamination procedures.
The incident’s cause remains under investigation.
Officials haven’t publicly identified the deceased, though family members and friends have started confirming identities and establishing online fundraising campaigns for the families.
Two brothers, Tyler and Brad Covington, who were employed together at the facility, were among those killed. An online fundraising effort for Tyler Covington’s family described how he “leaves behind his wife and their three beautiful children, who are now trying to navigate a future without the man who was their rock, protector, and greatest source of love and support.”
Gilbert Bernal, a grandfather who served as an electrician at the facility, was the first confirmed fatality, according to his friend Todd Cornwell.
“He was one of the most genuinely good people that you’ve ever met. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” Cornwell said.
John Forsberg, another victim of the incident, was described as witty, kind and “wicked smart,” according to friend Kole Musgrove, who runs a trivia event at Ashtown Brewing in Longview, where Forsberg was a regular participant. The establishment plans to rename its trivia award the Forsberg Cup in his memory.
“It seemed like there was never a fact he didn’t know,” Musgrove said. “He was also a tremendous sport — he was always the first to cheer for another team when they won.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been established to help Forsberg’s two children.
CJ Doran, 26, was described as “the spiritual leader of their family, the joy of their home, and the family provider,” in a GoFundMe posting confirmed by the crowdfunding platform.
Additional victims included Jared Ammons, who had two children with a third expected, and Braydon Finkas, a facility electrician who, together with his longtime partner, Kaitlyn Kincaid, welcomed exchange students and others needing assistance, friend Rex Czuba said.
Finkas relocated to Cathlamet approximately four years ago to construct a home and establish a farm, Czuba explained. He consistently offered help to fellow farmers with hay cutting or equipment loading, or would purchase drinks for newcomers in their small community, he noted.
“He really jumped in and became a part of the community so quickly,” Czuba said.
The tank failure also left eight people injured, including one firefighter. Several sustained burns or breathing injuries, officials reported.
The facility’s Japanese parent company, Nippon Paper Group, issued an updated statement Friday expressing “heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families.”
Officials confirmed Friday that the chemical release hasn’t polluted air quality or drinking water supplies in and around Longview, a community of approximately 40,000 residents near Washington’s Oregon border.
The community, established where the Cowlitz and Columbia rivers meet by a Kansas City timber entrepreneur in the 1920s, maintains strong connections to paper and lumber manufacturing.
Multiple generations of families have been employed at the mills, and numerous residents interviewed by The Associated Press had relatives or friends working at the Nippon Dynawave facility. The extensive operation, which employs roughly 1,000 workers, produces materials for tissues, printing paper, cups, plates and cartons. The facility is located along the Columbia river adjacent to other timber, paper and chemical operations.
Workers continued efforts to flush water from drainage areas near the facility and dilute it before releasing it into the river.
While some contamination has entered the river, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported it has caused no observable impact.
