LONGVIEW, Wash. — The Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office has completed the autopsies on the people who died in the implosion at the Nippon Dynawave Industrial plant in Longview.
The office says that everyone died from alkaline chemical burns.
“We ask that you please honor their time to grieve during this difficult period,” the coroner shared.
10 of the 11 who died were taken to Cowlitz County:
Gilberto Bernal, age 52 of Kelso, WA
Tyler Covington, age 29 of Castle Rock, WA
Dale Miller, age 54 of Portland, OR
Robert Wilson, age 48 of Clatskanie, OR
Jared Ammons, age 35 of Longview, WA
Bradley Covington, age 27 of Castle Rock, WA
Clinton Doran, age 26 of Kelso, WA
John Forsberg, age 51 of Longview, WA
Braydon Finkas, age 38 of Cathlamet, WA
Norman Barlow, age 58 of Vancouver, WA
The 11th person who died, Dillon Miller, was outside of the Cowlitz County Coroner’s jurisdiction so his cause of death will come from another agency.
Nine of the 11 autopsies were performed in Seattle. On June 6 there was a procession to bring them home to their families in Longview.
If you’d like to donate to funeral costs and help each of the grieving families impacted by this tragedy, you can find individual fundraisers by clicking here.
Governor Bob Ferguson has called it the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history.
The May 26 incident resulted in hundreds of thousands of gallons of white liquor spilling into the city’s stormwater outfalls and canal system.
The cause of the incident remains under investigation.