2 dead after chemical leak at West Virginia plant, officials say

Two people are dead, and another was critically injured after a "chemical release" at a West Virginia silver recovery business that was in the process of closing for good, officials said, Report informs via USA Today.

The incident happened just after 9:30 a.m. ET at the Catalyst Refiners Inc. plant in West Virginia as workers were shutting down operations, the Kanawha County Commission said in a news release. Workers were conducting cleaning and decontamination activities to prepare for the closure of the site, which was used to manufacture silver catalyst.

Authorities believe that a chemical reaction occurred, causing the leak. During a news conference, Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said the workers were decommissioning a tank when nitric acid and an M2000A chemical were mixed, and created toxic hydrogen sulfide.

"It's a violent reaction. When the materials got together, they reacted violently and exposed the workers," Sigman said. "There's some residual. We could smell it downwind."

At a separate news conference, Kanawha County Commissioner Lance Wheeler confirmed that testing showed "no indication of the chemicals in the air affecting the area or the people there."

The Kanawha County Commission confirmed that two people died in the incident. Their identities were withheld pending notification of next of kin. One person was in critical condition.