![\"Longview](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7mw2ot3vqit972kc.jpg\")
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LONGVIEW, Wash. – The Longview community is mourning and demanding accountability following a fatal chemical tank implosion<\/a> at the Nippon Dynawave mill on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The incident, which involved a “white liquor” chemical tank, killed 52-year-old instrument technician Gilbert Bernal<\/a>\u00a0and 37-year-old technician Braydon Finkas<\/a>. As response teams search for a cause, grieving family members, friends, and union officials are pushing for answers regarding how the tragedy occurred.<\/p>\n Families mourn sudden loss <\/p>\n Gilbert Bernal\u2019s children, Geovana and Elisha Bernal, are currently trying to process the sudden loss of their father. Elisha, who also works at the mill, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the implosion.<\/p>\n “It was just hard knowing that my dad was in there,” Elisha Bernal said. “Nobody had an answer for me.”<\/p>\n Geovana Bernal expressed the deep pain of imagining her father’s final moments, while emphasizing the need for a thorough investigation to ensure a similar tragedy never happens again.<\/p>\n “I can only imagine his last moments, of realizing, that obviously something wasn’t right,” Geovana Bernal said. “So, that hurts.”<\/p>\n “Unfortunately it just, it happened to our dad, so I think it would be nice to know, that way it can be prevented,” Geovana Bernal added.<\/p>\n Friends of Braydon Finkas, a technician at the mill, are also grappling with the unexpected tragedy. Loved ones noted that Finkas had many future plans involving his girlfriend, Kaitlyn, and the local community.<\/p>\n “I messaged him the day before this happened and, you know, everything was fine,” friend Javier Sanchez said. “It was just such an unexpected situation.”<\/p>\n Sanchez added that the lack of clear information from officials has made it difficult for those close to Finkas to find closure.<\/p>\n “We don’t have closure yet,” Sanchez said. “I think for us is, you know, a struggle of what’s exactly happening.”<\/p>\n Braydon Finkas (left) (Family of Braydon Finkas)<\/p>\n Union demands investigation <\/p>\n The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) union has joined the families in calling for total transparency from mill officials.<\/p>\n “Every question deserves to be answered, and we’re going to demand those questions be answered,” AWPPW spokesperson Josh Estes said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the union confirmed that representatives have already met with federal and state agencies in anticipation of the upcoming investigation into the cause of the implosion.<\/p>\n MORE NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE <\/p>\n Is Mark Zuckerberg in Seattle? Here\u2019s what we know<\/a><\/p>\n Accused monk seal rock thrower pleads not guilty in Hawaii court<\/a><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s no-bond policy for immigrants in custody played out for years in Tacoma, WA<\/a><\/p>\n Late World Cup bookings expected to drive Seattle economic surge<\/a><\/p>\n Top spots in Seattle to watch the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store<\/a> or Google Play Store<\/a> for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle reporter Dan Griffin.<\/p>\n Longview<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONGVIEW, Wash. – The Longview community is mourning and demanding accountability following a fatal chemical tank implosion at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23479,8,22783,173,31,25,6731],"class_list":["post-32865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-cowlitz-county","tag-japan","tag-longview","tag-news","tag-nippon","tag-us","tag-wa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gilbert-bernal.jpg\")
Community remembers victim <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/braydon-finkas.jpg\")
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