The second worker who died after a gas exposure at Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville last month has been publicly identified.
Allen Hornberger died Tuesday following a chemical release at the mill’s bleach plant on Jan. 27. The gas leak also killed Kasie Malcolm, a 20-year-old chemical engineering student from the University of Maine.
Hornberger, 26, was hired by Woodland Pulp mill as an engineer in September 2025, mill spokesperson Scott Beal said.
Hornberger’s parents Kathryn Reilley Hornberger and Al Hornberger Sr. confirmed their son’s death through a written statement released Wednesday afternoon.
They released the statement through lawyer Elizabeth Kayatta, who is representing them and the Malcolm family.
“It is with unspeakable sadness that we must confirm the loss of our beloved son Allen,” Hornberger’s parents said. “For the past three weeks, we have been at his bedside in the ICU, praying for a miracle that never came. It is inconceivable to lose him in such a way, when there are still so many questions surrounding what went wrong inside that plant.”
The family requested “privacy, compassion and space” to grieve.
“Allen was our only child and the light of our lives. He was a kind and brilliant 26-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him. The world is a dimmer place for the loss of his genuine heart and extraordinary mind.”
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 Kayatta.