50-mile motorcade honors victims of Longview industrial disaster
KELSO - As he waited by Lexington Street Bridge for the motorcade coming down Interstate 5, Dan Carpenter said the only thing he could compare the accident to was the explosion of Mount St. Helens when he was 16.
Everybody's got questions and nobody's got answers," said Carpenter, a 62-year-old Kelso resident.
Nine workers killed in Longview's chemical tank implosion returned to the area Saturday in a motorcade that traveled about 50 miles down I-5 under clouded skies to the Cowlitz County coroner's office.
On May 26, a tank at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging mill failed, spilling more than half a million gallons of a caustic chemical known as white liquor and killing 11 workers.
Saturday's procession carried the remains of nine of those lost, with the body of Gilberto Bernal already sent east to the Yakima area. The 11th worker, Dillon Miller, died outside of the Cowlitz coroner's jurisdiction.
The procession officially began at mile marker 88 on I-5 in Lewis County and traveled south to Longview. Along the route, vehicles from the Washington State Patrol and Cowlitz County sheriff's office joined the county coroner.
About 75 people waited near the Lexington Street Bridge where the motorcade turned onto Westside Highway, with dozens more farther down the freeway.
Standing with Carpenter was Missy Pennington, 61, who said someone in her family circle had a connection to someone lost in the accident.
"Everybody knows a mill worker," she said.
The transport brought the remains from Seattle, according to Brittny Goodsell, a spokesperson for the state Department of Ecology. A moment of silence was expected to be held with those who took part in the procession, including family members and law enforcement, Goodsell wrote in an email.
Saturday's procession came as the community gets a clearer picture of the disaster's fallout. In the days after incident, officials had said 10 people were injured in the accident: nine Nippon Dynawave workers and one firefighter who were transported to hospitals.
Now, officials and a nearby company clarified that 10 other people went to local medical facilities as a result of the accident.
Four people at the accident site took themselves to the hospital and so were not counted in the original tally, Longview fire Chief Brad Hannig said. All four of those people have been treated and released, he added.
Meanwhile, six employees at a Weyerhaeuser trucking facility adjacent to the Nippon Dynawave campus also went for medical treatment, company spokesperson Mary Catherine McAleer said.
"We can confirm that several employees who were working in our Timberlands trucking office at the Longview site sought medical evaluation shortly after the chemical tank rupture," McAleer wrote in an email. "We have been working closely with authorities on the ground to monitor and respond to any potential risks from the incident and ensure the safety of our employees."
The damaged tank is still in place and will remain there as the investigation progresses, according to Goodsell. But the tank must still be decontaminated before investigators can fully get onto the scene.
"The tank is not leaking and is currently stable, but accessing the site fully has not happened because the tank is still covered in white liquor," she wrote.
She referred questions about the investigation process to federal and state investigators.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board didn't respond to a request for comment.
While the Department of Labor and Industries can't make a physical inspection of the tank yet, the agency has started other parts of the review, according to agency spokesperson Matt Ross.
"That includes holding the opening conference, beginning interviews with workers and the company, and requesting documents we need to review," Ross wrote in an email. The timeline remained unclear for when the tank will be fully decontaminated, he added.
Saturday's procession won't be the only one related to the accident this weekend. On Sunday, the Banter Brothers are hosting a local motorcycle ride to raise money for Nippon Dynawave employees, Jordan Lemire said. Lemire, a member of the motorcycle riding club, said they'll end the ride at The Shamrock Bar & Grill in Longview, which is also hosting a fundraiser for those affected.
"We're going to bring that entire ride to The Shamrock so that we can also bring more patrons into the bar, so that they can have a better event themselves," said Lemire.
For Courtney Buchanan, who stood near the Lexington Street Bridge, the procession was an emotional moment.
"It's been difficult," said Buchanan, 41, who works at a hospital where workers were treated.
She added: "I really hope the families get answers to what happened.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.