Cause of death released for 11 victims in Washington chemical tank rupture
The 11 people killed after a chemical tank ruptured at a pulp and paper mill in Washington state last month all suffered chemical burns, officials said Thursday while releasing the autopsy results. The incident occurred May 26 at Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview, located about 50 miles northwest of Portland, on the Washington-Oregon border. A tank containing white liquor, a chemical mixture used in the paper-making process, catastrophically failed in what authorities have described as a blast that damaged much of the facility. White liquor, which is used to break down wood into paper pulp, is made up of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide and disodium carbonate, authorities said. The 900,000-gallon tank was approximately two-thirds full at the time of failure. Eleven employees died and multiple others were seriously injured in the incident, officials said. The Cowlitz County Coroner's Office conducted the autopsies for 10 of the victims. Eight of them died from al...
