The second worker who died after a gas exposure at Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville last month has been identified by the mill.
Allen Hornberger died Tuesday following a chemical release at the mill’s bleach plant on Jan. 27. The gas leak also left Kasie Malcolm, a 20-year-old chemical engineering student from the University of Maine, dead.
Hornberger, 26, was hired by Woodland Pulp mill as an engineer in September 2025, mill spokesperson Scott Beal said.
Hornberger received his bachelor’s degree in 2022 from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, according to his LinkedIn page. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 2025.
Hornberger, who attended a public high school in southwest New York, was the school’s 2018 class valedictorian, according to information the school posted on Facebook that year. He received a Dr. Russell J. Joy Community Appreciation Scholarship in June of that year, though it was not immediately clear how much funding came with it.
Before joining Woodland Pulp, he was a process engineer for a paper company in Ticonderoga, New York.
Malcolm and Hornberger were exposed to hydrogen sulfide while working in the plant’s bleach facility. Two federal agencies are conducting investigations: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
Eight other workers were exposed to the chemical but not hospitalized, according to the chemical safety board.
It was not immediately clear what Hornberger’s condition has been since the Jan. 27 gas leak, other than that he has been hospitalized.
Malcolm died the morning after the leak. His family laid him to rest in a private funeral service Tuesday, according to his family attorney, Elizabeth Kayatta.
Hornberger’s family members did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News.
