Washington: The death toll from a chemical tank rupture in the US state of Washington has risen to 11, after crews recovered the bodies of all nine missing people, authorities said.
Two fatalities had already been confirmed after the tank, containing “white liquor” — a chemical solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphide used in paper pulp production — ruptured at a Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility on Tuesday.
The search for the missing continued throughout the week, with recovery crews working through debris indoors and deploying drones to survey the perimeter of the site, said Kurt Stitch, deputy chief of Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue.
The ruptured tank contained about 900,000 gallons (3.4 million litres) of white liquor. Tests confirmed that contamination had entered the nearby Columbia River, officials said, although no “negative health impacts” had been detected in air quality or Longview’s drinking water supply.
Nippon Paper Industries, Japan’s second-largest paper manufacturer by sales, acquired the Longview plant from Seattle-based timber company Weyerhaeuser for $225 million and established its wholly owned subsidiary, Nippon Dynawave Packaging, in 2016.