LONGVIEW, Washington (From The Daily News) -- KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. faces $71,800 in state fines for health and safety violations at its Longview mill last November, including a "near miss" when a paper machine was nearly started with a contract worker inside.

While no one was hurt, state inspectors found that employees were exposed to potential injuries from crushing, falls, high-temperature fluids and toxic or corrosive chemicals, according to documents from the Department of Labor & Industries.

The state issued a $26,500 health citation in April and a separate $45,300 safety citation in May. KapStone has appealed both penalties. The internal appeals process is expected to be finished in late July.

KapStone officials did not respond to request for comment.

The biggest fine was for contract workers who allegedly failed to properly lock out paper machine 11 before performing repair work. "Locking out" prevents machines from being started accidentally. The mill was previously cited for a similar violation in November 2014, which resulted in an escalation of the fine this time. The company, in its appeal to the state, argued the incident was not a repeat because "substantially different" equipment was involved.

"We call it lock and tag out. It's a fail-safe method of ensuring machinery doesn't start up or parts starting moving or electricity starts flowing when there is maintenance or repair work being done," said Elaine Fischer, spokesperson for L&I.

One contract employee also did not sign into a "tag out" sheet notifying others that he was inside the machine, so it was restarted while he was still inside the dryer section of the machine, said Kurt Gallow, mill worker and president of Local 153 of Association of Pulp and Paperworkers. An alarm that typically sounds off when the machine starts was broken, but a bystander noticed the worker inside and was able to shout out so the machine could be stopped again, he added.

Fischer called the incident "a near miss" and a separate violation was issued specifically for the broken alarm.

"If it started up while a person was in there, they could get mangled or killed, so the alarm is another mechanism to ensure that everyone knows, 'We're starting up this machine now and nobody should be inside,' " Fischer said.

Gallow said the mill has had ongoing problem with some contractors not being trained on how to properly log out and tag out.

"The union has brought it up over and over that a lot of them aren't trained. It's a pretty dangerous situation," he said.

State inspectors also found paper machines 10, 11, 12 and 7 also did not have guard rails, making workers vulnerable to falls of 10 feet or more.

In the health citation, inspectors found that KapStone failed to adequately maintain piping systems handling hot liquors, steam toxic and corrosive chemicals.

The November inspection found leaking steam valves at the boilers; damaged sulfuric acid piping and valving; broken pipe hangers and supports; inadequate guards at paper machines; damaged protective covering over natural gas piping; and missing insulation on steam and oil pipe lines, among other problems. There also was missing records for inspections of several of the piping systems, and several pipes weren't labeled. This could expose workers to "serious injury upon contact with the contents of the hazardous piping," according to L&I's notice of infraction.

Inspectors also found KapStone did not have an adequate rescue and emergency services available when employees entered a permit confined space. The company discontinued its in-house emergency response team in May last year to contract with the Longview Fire Department instead. But inspectors said the fire department's response time was too long (between 8 to 20 minutes) and that fire officials did not have a way to track when KapStone employees were entering permit confined spaces or notify the company when they were out on emergency calls.

Battalion Chief Troy Buzalsky said it would be "unreasonable" for the fire department to notify the company continually whenever it responded to a call throughout the city.

"That doesn't take us out of the game," he said, noting that Longview Fire has 27 staff members trained in permit confined space rescue, and that six employees are always on duty. KapStone now has gone back to having an in-house rescue team.

This violations are the latest safety infractions at the mill, which the state has fined $39,000 over the past two years, although no one was hurt in any of those instances.

The company says its safety record has improved in the last several years. In 2007, when Brookfield Asset Management acquired the mill, the annual injury incident rate was 8.2 out of 100 employees, according to KapStone. The incident rate has declined since then, to less than 1 per 100 workers in 2013.

In 2013 the company also started a program at its Longview mill in which employees can report safety concerns anonymously online.