Tank rupture at Longview paper mill kills 1, injures several; 9 unaccounted for, say fire officials

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Longview's Nippon Dynawave employs about 500 people, a big employer in this small community, and it's still not clear how many of those community members were killed here today. Longview Fire Department 221 response 3401 Industrial Way at Nippon has not burned. The call started coming in around 7:30 in the morning.

[00:00:19]>> We're reporting a tank imploded. Looks like there's three people with the chemical burns and one subject is missing. The news instantly was not good. It's a big loss.

[00:00:29]>> Gilbert Bernal's family, through their pastor, confirmed he was one of the deceased. The grandfather, an electrician, worked at the plant for about 15 years. It's a big loss for their family because of Gilbert, the way he the way he lived his life, the way he loved his family. At this time, there are also individuals who remain unaccounted for as crews recover uh and continue the recovery and accountability operations. Investigators say a tank of white liquor, a chemical commonly used in paper production, imploded, injuring more than a dozen, including a firefighter. It's not clear yet how many were killed in the incident. It has even upset first responders. The people who are responders here have friends and and relatives that work on site. It is something that is impactful, and we have support networks to support the workers as well as the emergency responders as we continue to help each other through this critical day. This is a very close-knit community. In the coming days, the Longview-Kelso community will need to lean on each other to help themselves. I I need to be here for our church family and the family at the same time I'm grieving.

[00:01:36]And because I'm going to miss you a lot.

[00:01:38]As far as what caused all of this, the state is helping the local investigators on that, but the priority remains identifying the deceased and trying to account for those reported missing.

[00:01:50]In Longview, Drew Mikkelsen, KING 5 News.