Multiple people were injured Tuesday morning after a chemical vat imploded at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company in Longview, Washington, sending first responders to the industrial site and triggering a hazardous materials response that lasted into the day.
The Longview Fire Department said the incident happened at about 7:18 a.m., when crews were called to the facility just before 7:20 a.m. Authorities initially described the event as a chemical explosion, but later reports identified it as an implosion involving a vat of chemical treatment product. Several people suffered chemical burns and other injuries and were taken by ambulance to PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview and PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver. The department said the extent of the injuries was not fully known.
Fire crews and a Hazardous Materials Team remained on scene working with Nippon Dynawave employees to mitigate the product and container involved, and regional hazardous materials crews also responded to the large supply tank at the mill. Mike Gorsuch said, “This could probably be an all-day process for us,” a sign of how difficult it was to secure the material and the damaged container after the implosion.
The Nippon facility sits in the 3400 block of Industrial Way, also listed as Highway 432, near the Washington-Oregon border and the Columbia River. It is a kraft pulp and paper mill and liquid packaging plant that employs about 550 people and makes about 280,000 tons of bleached liquid packaging paperboard and wetlap and slush pulp each year. Authorities said there was no immediate threat to the public, but residents were urged to avoid the area while the emergency response remained active.
The cause of the implosion had not been determined, leaving the company and investigators with the task of figuring out how a routine Tuesday morning turned into a hazardous material emergency at one of Longview’s biggest industrial employers.
