Six of the nine people unaccounted for after a Longview packaging plant tank ruptured have been found dead, the Longview Fire Department confirmed in a news conference Thursday.
This comes after two people were confirmed dead after the tank containing white liquor ruptured early Tuesday morning, bringing the total number of deaths to eight. At least eight others, including one firefighter, are injured.
Longview Fire Department (LFD) Chief Brad Hannig said all recovered individuals underwent decontamination before being transported to the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office for identification. He thanked the community for an outpouring of support.
“We are incredibly humbled by the outpouring of support from the community for our first responders and the affected families. We know many people want to help and are looking for ways to contribute. Our team is currently working to coordinate verified donation and support channels, and we will share that information with the community as soon as it becomes available,” Hannig said.
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Brooks Stanfield, a federal on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said officials have been monitoring the air quality and have not found any air contaminants.
“The main contaminant we were concerned with was hydrogen sulfide. Knowing what we know about this facility and the contaminants involved, I can report to you that we’ve been monitoring 24 hours a day since we arrived here, and not only have we not seen any exceedances of health criteria, we have not actually had a detection of hydrogen sulfide or any of the other air contaminants we might have encountered, so that’s really good news. But we will continue on with that air monitoring operation for the foreseeable future,” she said.
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