Longview plant worker found dead in salt pile

LONGVIEW, Wash. – The man feared missing in a pile of salt at a Longview chemical plant has been located. And the result is as feared.

On Sunday morning, workers at the Equa-Chlor plant searching nearly 45,000 tons of salt with excavators spotted the man's stocking cap. The man was reported missing on Christmas Day.

Members of the Longview Fire Department were called in to begin digging out the area by hand. It was indeed the missing worker, and he was found dead.

The worker is identified by the Cowlitz County Coroner's Office as 25-year-old Justin J. Florek, one of 65 employees at the plant. He had been an employee there for five years.

Florek's family had been at the Equa-Chlor plant since workers reported him missing at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas. Consequently, Florek's family members were there for the discovery of his body.

"This has been an ordeal for everyone," said Brett Dundas, chief deputy coroner for Cowlitz County. "It's just incredibly sad, and a sad ending to an already sad story. Sad."

A preliminary examination by the Cowlitz County Coroner's Office found "no signs of foul play or any obvious injuries," said Dundas. The most obvious cause of death would be suffocation.

The Cowlitz County Coroner's office is performing its autopsy today, with results expected early next week.

Florek went missing while on his Christmas shift at Equa-Chlor. The company uses salt mixed with water and electricity to produce chlorine and caustic soda on the Weyerhauser complex in Longview. 

His car was found on the property, and workers called in the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, Longview firefighters and search-and-rescue dogs to scour the plant – including sifting through its massive piles of salt – on Friday and Saturday. The search ended in, as feared, a pile of salt on Sunday morning.