(LONGVIEW, Wash.) -- A second employee has died after a chemical tank ruptured at a paper mill in Washington state, officials said Wednesday.

Nine people remain missing, as recovery efforts are underway a day after the incident, officials said.

"We're bracing ourselves for this being the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history," Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

"When you have a tragedy of that scale, the impacts on individuals, on families and on communities is profound," he said. "I want to extend my deepest condolences to those who have been directly impacted by the loss of a loved one during this extraordinarily challenging time."

Fire authorities said the "hazardous materials incident" was reported Tuesday morning at Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a pulp and paper mill in Longview, a city of 38,000 people about 50 miles northwest of Portland.

The response transitioned from rescue to recovery as of Wednesday morning, Cowlitz2 Fire & Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said during Wednesday's press briefing.

"I want to acknowledge again the tremendous support that we have received from our state and regional and federal partners, but more specifically the tremendous impact that this incident continues to have on the victims, the families, the coworkers, my responders, all the agencies, responders, and the broader community," he said. "Understand that there are members working the site tirelessly that have lost coworkers, lost friends, and they remain dedicated to focusing on our recovery efforts."

The effort to recover the nine employees will be "slow, methodical and deliberate," Longview Fire Battalion Chief Matt Amos said during the press briefing on Wednesday.

"The priority is ensuring responder safety while treating every victim with the greatest dignity, care, and respect as possible," he said.

Authorities said recovery efforts were delayed due to safety concerns over the unstable tank, which contains white liquor, a chemical mixture used in the paper-making process.

The remaining product in the damaged 900,000-gallon tank is roughly 25,000 gallons, a "significantly smaller volume" than initially believed, "allowing emergency responders to develop a plan to move forward to remove it," local authorities and Nippon Dynawave Packaging said in a joint statement Wednesday. The tank is believed to have been about 60% full at the time of the rupture, authorities said.

The tank ruptured at approximately 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, resulting in the release of white liquor, officials said. Authorities initially referred to the incident as a chemical explosion and then an implosion, before referring to it as a rupture and blast.

"There was a rupture, a failure, a blast," Goldstein said. "All of those to us mean the same. It's not why it happened, it's the damage that we observe. Vehicles are damaged, buildings are damaged, mechanical equipment is damaged, collapsed and failed."

There was a shift change around the time, with employees in their workspaces when the blast occurred, he said. Authorities have not found any video recording of the incident, he said.

One of the injured employees transported to the hospital following the incident has since died, officials said Wednesday, bringing the confirmed number of fatalities to two.

The Cowlitz County Coroner's Office will release the names of the deceased "when all individuals have been recovered and family notifications are complete," officials said Wednesday.

Family identified one of the deceased employees as Gilbert Bernal, a beloved husband, dad and grandfather.

"My father was the most selfless man I knew," Bernal's daughter, Geovana Bernal, said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. "He worked hard to provide for his family and he loved us so much."

Geovana Bernal said her brother viewed images of her father and confirmed his death after speaking with the coroner's office.

Seven other employees suffered injuries in the incident, including chemical burns, and remain hospitalized, authorities said Wednesday.

One firefighter was also injured in the incident and has since been treated and released from a nearby hospital, according to authorities.

The cause of the rupture is unknown, Goldstein said Tuesday.

White liquor is a chemical mixture of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide and disodium carbonate used in the paper-making process, according to Goldstein.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said Wednesday it is opening an investigation into the incident "to determine how it happened and what can be done to prevent something like this from happening again."

A team of CSB investigators will be arriving at the incident site in Longview on Wednesday.

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries said it is also investigating.

There is no direct threat to the public, authorities said.

Contamination was confirmed to have entered the nearby Columbia River, Goldstein said Wednesday, with mitigation efforts and more testing underway "to better understand the scope and extent of that environmental impact."

The Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are helping monitor air and water quality, officials said Wednesday.

"At this time, there are no negative health impacts to air quality or the City of Longview's drinking water system," officials said Wednesday. "The public is asked to keep away from ditches and dikes in the city while water testing is underway."

The Nippon facility is located on the Washington-Oregon border near the Columbia River. The kraft pulp and paper mill and liquid packaging plant employs around 1,000 people, according to the Washington Department of Ecology.

"On behalf of NDP, these are our people," Brian Wood, director of support services for Nippon Dynawave Packaging, said during Wednesday's briefing. "We are focused on our people. We are focused on helping our responders find and recover those things. That is our people. That is our focus today."

"We are profoundly grateful for the people behind me, for the responders and what they've done with us and for us," he continued.

Wood said the company will cooperate with investigators and they "look forward to a full and complete investigation."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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