Longview, a town built on mill industry, caught between loss and fear

LONGVIEW - Small shops stood empty on a sunny afternoon. Memorials and "Longview Strong" signs dotted the city. And the acrid malodor that hangs over Longview felt heavier than usual - an inescapable reminder of the unfolding industrial tragedy.

This affects the whole town," said tearful Longview resident and store owner Polly Reutov, two days after a paper mill implosion rocked the close-knit community.

"We're leaning on one another because none of this is making sense to anybody."

Industrial mills are the heartbeat of Longview. Over the past century, the paper and wood manufacturing sector has served as the area's economic engine, with mills employing generations of local families.

Now, one of the mills that provided livelihoods for thousands is a source of death, injury and uncertainty.

On Tuesday, a Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. tank with a capacity of 900,000 gallons of a highly corrosive chemical imploded. All 11 victims were recovered and identified by Saturday.

Since then, the mill has suspended operations except for critical systems as search efforts were ongoing and investigators worked to determine how this tragedy happened

After what Gov. Bob Ferguson called the most fatal industrial disaster in the state's modern history, the community is stuck in limbo. Mill workers don't know when they can return to their jobs. Residents agonize over the status of close and distant connections at the mill while trying to give the grieving families space. Many wonder - will Longview ever be the same?

The city of 38,000 is normally vibrant and warm - the kind of place where a local can't go to the grocery store without seeing someone they know. But in the last few days, it has become eerily quiet and teeming with unfamiliar faces.

The governor, members of Congress, federal investigators and national media have descended like a storm. Where burly men in workwear once bustled around the mill, people dressed in business casual gathered Friday. A stream of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Ecology trucks moved in and out of the facility, where yellow caution tape marked the site of the implosion.

"If you're not in a trades family or a mill family, it can be hard to understand how devastating an industrial accident like this is for a mill town like Longview," Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat in Southwest Washington's 3rd Congressional District, said at a news conference Wednesday.

Residents say the collective grief is palpable as the extent of the tragedy unfolds.

"People want answers," Josh Estes, spokesperson for the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, said in an interview. "They want to know how in the world could this happen at a facility that's as massive as this one."

As victims were identified, each loss rippled across the community.

Among the dead were a father who went to work early Tuesday so he could attend an ultrasound with his pregnant wife later that day and a new grandfather on the verge of his 32nd wedding anniversary.

Behind every name was a family member, friend, co-worker and neighbor.

"These are not just mill workers," Estes said.

"That void happens in the everyday reality of a neighbor who no longer has a neighbor, that grocery store employee who no longer sees that smile. That's horrific, and it'll take years for this community to recover."

Built on mills

Longview's history is intertwined with the mills. Saw wheels and helmets hang in restaurant windows. The faces of past lumber executives are plastered across the city. The historical museum preserves sheets of locally made paper inside glass display cases.

"This town was built on industry, paper, wood," Longview Mayor Erik Halvorson said Thursday. "That's what the whole town's about."

Timber tycoon R.A. Long founded the city to house workers after the Long-Bell Lumber Co. made plans to construct two mills near the confluence of the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers. Longview was incorporated in 1924.

Despite the industry's decline across the state amid consolidation, paper and wood products make up the bulk of employment in Longview. Manufacturing constitutes 1 in 5 jobs in wider Cowlitz County, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department.

If residents aren't employed by the mills themselves, they're a degree or two away from someone who is.

The Nippon Dynawave Packaging mill, now owned by Tokyo-based Nippon Paper Industries, is one of several major industrial mills in Longview, including another paper producer.

Around 550 people work in the company's pulp and paper operations, while around 450 people work at Nippon's "liquid packaging" plant, which makes material for paper cups, cartons and other paperboard products.

The jobs come with risks and occasional accidents, said Estes, the union spokesperson. But no one expected a tragedy like this.

Kent Wheiler, an associate professor at the University of Washington's School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, worked at the Nippon Dynawave mill from 1994 to 1997 when it operated as Weyerhaeuser's fine paper business.

"Safety was drilled into us every day," he said Wednesday. "To this day, I don't wear a watch or jewelry because it wasn't allowed in the mill because it could get caught in a machine."

He called Tuesday's incident "highly unusual and so tragic."

As of Saturday, it was unclear what circumstances led to the implosion. It was also too soon to determine the disaster's immediate and long-term effects on the local economy.

Toby Paterson, northwest regional economist at the state Employment Security Department, referred to Cowlitz County as a "good trade hub," due to its proximity to Interstate 5, the Columbia River and the Oregon state line.

Given the area's focus on manufacturing, "it has a big impact on state commerce, certainly," Paterson said Friday.

He believes the brunt of this mill incident will be felt by Nippon Dynawave's labor force and clients. The mill is incapacitated for the foreseeable future.

"This is a sudden stoppage of commerce from that one employer," Paterson said. "It certainly will have an effect."

In a statement, Nippon Paper said the impact of the implosion on the environment, production, shipments and its financial performance is still being assessed.

"We would like to once again express our sincere apologies for the immense concern and inconvenience this has caused to the local community, our business partners, and all related parties," the statement read.

Although its workers continue to receive paychecks, Estes said they're trying to manage the anxiety of not knowing when they'll return to work while also grieving their colleagues.

"To have to come back to work now and that person might not be around the corner? It's a tough reality, and I don't think it's even set in yet," Estes said.

At Wednesday's news conference, Gluesenkamp Perez said the workers she has spoken with are scared for the future of the paper mill.

"Folks here have watched mill after mill close across the state, always wondering if their plant or job is next," she said. "And, today, that fear has reached new heights as people wonder if this accident will be the last straw for a viable mill and the first step toward closures.

'It scares me now'

Days after the implosion, a muted version of daily life persisted in Longview.

Men in workwear murmured the latest updates on the recovery efforts over bar tops. Fresh flowers were scattered under a steam engine outside as a makeshift monument to the victims.

First responders who witnessed the devastation firsthand Tuesday carried on responding to calls across the city while trying to assist in the incident response.

"We feel exactly what everybody else feels," said Brian Russell, fire marshal at the Longview Fire Department, on Saturday. "We feel the stress. We feel the sorrow. We feel the loss. We don't get to process it."

Across the city's businesses, locals tabled their mourning to clock in for their shifts. Store workers and restaurant servers said in the days after the implosion, they had no choice but to return to work.

Downtown businesses saw customers few and far between. Reutov, who owns Polly's Antique, Boutique, and More store, wondered what she could do to best help other residents.

"We're all doing something to help support the community. It's all affecting us - and all in different ways," she said. "But it's one of those things where people don't know what to do."

The disaster hasn't spared local businesses. On Thursday afternoon, Jacquie Glen, owner of Jacquie's WEB gift shop, surveyed the quiet street.

"It's really slow," she said. "I've been sitting outside, like, ‘Where is everyone?' "

Ellen Wallace, 68, sat at the front desk of the Cowlitz County Historical Museum. She resides in nearby Rose Valley and works in Kelso.

Wallace worries about the safety of her grandson's friends employed at the mills. "It scares me now," she said, "where I wouldn't have even given it a thought two weeks ago."

The city is balancing space for sorrow with a call to action. Neighbors have launched GoFundMe pages for the families of victims, local businesses have planned fundraisers and churches have held candlelight services.

The Lower Columbia Longshoremen's Federal Credit Union is taking donations for a relief fund, and a community barbecue was planned for Saturday at Bob's Sporting Goods in Longview to raise money.

"People are coming together over it," Wallace said.

Along a downtown city block of small businesses, a memorial had sprung up Friday morning. About 2 miles from the site of the accident, you could no longer hear the whine of whirring machinery or catch a whiff of astringent fumes.

A white prayer candle and a handful of white and blue roses were strewn on the sidewalk in front of Halo Salon, Med Spa and Boutique. A sign for the budding memorial encouraged passersby to share notes, prayers and memories.

"We work hard to keep everything going," an anonymous note scrawled on a dry-erase board read, "and we deserve a safe place to work."

Seattle Times staff reporter Paul Roberts contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 6:37 AM.