Overview
- A large steel storage tank at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant imploded on Tuesday, May 26, killing eight people and leaving three others unaccounted for as crews continue hazardous recovery work.
- The tank held white liquor, a highly caustic pulping solution made of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphide, and several injured workers required hospital treatment and decontamination for severe chemical burns and inhalation injuries.
- Recovery teams are making limited, carefully coordinated entries because the site remains unstable and toxic, with drones and engineers used to assess conditions before each hazardous-area entry.
- Federal and state agencies including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and Washington State Labor & Industries have opened technical probes focused on possible vacuum‑relief failures, maintenance records and corrosion to explain the inward collapse.
- Local and EPA monitoring so far have not detected hydrogen sulphide or harmful levels in municipal drinking water, but crews are pumping and diluting runoff into local ditches and the Columbia River and have reported some dead fish near the site.