Five Killed, Eight Missing In Explosion At Washington State Packaging Facility Explosion

An explosion at a Washington state packaging facility has caused fatalities and multiple critical injuries, according to local public safety officials.

The explosion occurred Tuesday morning at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co.’s facility in Longview, Washington, the company and the Longview Fire Department said in a joint statement on Facebook. Officials said there was no “immediate threat” to the surrounding community.

Five people were killed and as many as eight remain unaccounted for, according to Fire Battalion Chief Mike Gorsuch. He said 10 additional people, including a firefighter, were transported to the hospital.

The incident occurred after the rupture of a tank containing white liquor, a solution used to soften wood for papermaking. The facility in Longview makes 300,000 tons of paperboard each year for cartons and cups, as well as market pulp, according to the company’s website.

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Gorsuch, speaking in a phone interview, described the white liquor as “very caustic.” He said teams dealing with hazardous material are still on the scene.

Longview is a city of 35,000 people on the Columbia River in southwest Washington state, about an hour’s drive from Portland, Oregon.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said in a post on X that the state’s Department of Labor and Industries and Department of Ecology have teams on the scene, while National Guard teams are “on alert.”

Nippon Dynawave Packaging is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Nippon Paper Group Inc.

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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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