UPDATE: TWO DEAD FROM YESTERDAY'S CHEMICAL EXPOSURE

AP: 2 dead from chemical exposure at plant in Ill.

Two people have died after exposure to a dangerous chemical at a storage and mixing plant, a city official said Sunday.

At least eight people were sickened by exposure to the chemical on Saturday, and emergency rooms were quarantined at two St. Louis hospitals where those people sought treatment.

In a statement issued early Sunday, East St. Louis City Manager Robert Betts said two people had died.

The chemical was released when a barrel was dropped at the Ro-Corp. plant. The lid popped off the barrel and a white powder came out, said Fire Chief Jim Silvernail from Mehlville, Mo.

"It's like what would happen if you drop flour — it got all over them," Silvernail said.

The eight men who were at the plant sought treatment at several hospitals in the area, with some of them driving themselves, officials said.

Betts told KSDK-TV in St. Louis that the FBI would investigate because of the nature of the exposure. He said it wasn't certain that the employees had permission to be at the company on a Saturday.

EARLIER UPDATED POST HERE... (WITH EVOLUTION OF THE STORY FROM THE START.)

• IF THEY WERE IN THE PLANT WITHOUT PERMISSION, THEN WHY... AND WHAT WERE THEY TRYING TO DO WITH THIS VERY DANGEROUS CHEMICAL?

• WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES?!?!?!?!?
  
• WHY WON'T THEY RELEASE THEIR NAMES?