Search shifts to rescue as 11 feared dead in Washington state chemical tank explosion

Industrial Tank Collapse in Washington Leaves One Dead, Nine Missing

If the 11 deaths are confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the U.S. in recent decades — alongside a series of blasts that killed 16 people at an explosives plant in Tennessee last fall; a fire and detonation that killed 14 people at a fertilizer plant in Texas in 2013; the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 people in 2010; and an explosion at a West Virginia coal mine that killed 29 people in 2010.

Crews were set to resume searching Wednesday for nine workers at a Washington paper mill where a tank imploded, releasing a highly destructive chemical mixture called “white liquor” and causing at least one confirmed death.

One injured firefighter was treated and released.