Death toll rises to 11 in Washington plant chemical spill
A huge tank containing tens of thousands of gallons of a highly caustic substance imploded Tuesday at the Longview plant in Washington state, disrupting a major operation to search for missing workers.
Firefighters in special suits.
The death toll from a chemical spill at a paper plant in Washington state rose to 11 after rescuers recovered the bodies of the nine people who remained missing, officials said Saturday.
A huge tank containing tens of miles of liters of a highly caustic substance imploded Tuesday at the Longview plant in Washington state, disrupting a major search operation for the missing workers.
"We have recovered the ninth and final missing employee of this incident," Brad Hannig, fire chief of Longview Fire Department, told a news conference.
Rescuers had said Wednesday that two people had died and nine others were still missing.
The accident
White liquor is a highly alkaline solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfur, used to break down wood chips to create the pulp from which paper is made.
Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a subsidiary of Japan's Nippon Paper Group, produces 8 billion single-use containers a year for customers around the world, according to its website.
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