On March 24, a chocolate factory in the United States exploded. Seven people lost their lives. Patricia Borges survived – because she fell into a tank of liquid chocolate. The AP news agency has since visited her in hospital, where she has made serious accusations against her superiors.
That happened
It was just before 5 p.m. Friday when a massive explosion hit the RM Palmer Co. factory. shook the town of Reading. A brick building largely collapsed, another building was heavily damaged.
Rescuers were then on site for more than two days using thermal imaging cameras and dogs to search for survivors. And in a country where rescue workers are heroes, the local mayor told the media how rescue crews had to be towed from crime scenes after working 12 to 16 hours in shifts.
On Sunday, a feverish search was still underway for two missing persons – both were found dead late in the evening. The fact that parts of the building were lifted makes it more difficult to determine the cause, Pennsylvania State Police Master Trooper David Beohm said at a news conference.
Speculation soon spread as to what might have caused the explosion. Industrial and chemical safety expert Holly Burgess told the AP Monday after the explosion that U.S. chocolate makers should take steps to avoid the risk of fire and explosion from flammable dust. Because, what many do not know, ingredients such as cocoa powder and corn starch are extremely dangerous in case of fire because they remain suspended in the air for a long time. Therefore, food manufacturers must determine the flammability of each batch’s dust, conduct a hazard analysis, and then take steps to control the dust, Burgess said. Commercial refrigerants were also considered dangerous because they contain ammonia.
The investigative authorities now assume a gas explosion, although this was initially considered quite unlikely.
That the accident occurred in the RM Palmer Co. comes as a surprise, as the company was previously regarded as a model of safety compliance. Only one major accident happened at the chocolate factory, when in 2018 an employee lost the tip of a finger while cleaning a pneumatically operated ball valve. The company agreed to pay a $13,000 fine.
The victims
Reading Hamlet hospital said three days after the blast it 10 patients who were injured by the explosion. Two of them had to be transferred to other facilities. In addition to the injured seven corpses recovered from the remains of the chocolate factory.
At the same time, it became known that one of the people in the hospital was a woman who had initially been missing for a long time. So she was saved alive. The mayor said the woman was found in a “hopeful condition.” It has been clear since April 1 that the survivor in “hopeful condition” is Patricia Borges.
She told AP her story:
The visit to the hospital
The news agency reporters visit Borges at the hospital bedside. Her face is swollen and her right arm is bandaged. The 50-year-old speaks the interview in Spanish – Borges is originally from Mexico.
She tells how after the explosion flames not only gnawed at the building, but also at her arm.
Fired and panicked, Borges tries to run for the exit when the ground suddenly gives way beneath her. The woman falls one floor below into the basement of the building – straight into a vat of liquid chocolate. The brown, gooey mass smothered the fire on her arm and probably saved the operator’s life – only her feet broke on impact.
She spends the next several hours screaming for help and waiting to be rescued. Meanwhile, she hears firefighters fighting the inferno around her and helicopters rumbling and rattling overhead.
The barrel slowly begins to fill with the icy water from the firefighters’ hoses, forcing Borges to climb out. But the basement is also increasingly filling with water and Borges has difficulty clinging to an industrial hose. The pain becomes unbearable. She loses track of time.
Finally, somewhere in the darkness, a light glows. Borges screams again – and this time is saved. “She was severely hypothermic and completely confused,” Ken Pagurek, who led the rescue assumptions, told the AP. “If we had not reached them in time, the number of casualties would have been even higher.” He explains that search dogs had noticed someone else in the rubble, which is also why rescuers dared to go into the cellar in the first place. The rescuers later found five more bodies at the scene of the accident, but no other survivors.
Borges also tells AP the minutes before it all exploded: About 30 minutes before the factory exploded, she and others complained about the smell of gas. But the overseer waved him off and sent them all back to work. Someone “from above” has to make the decision to evacuate, he is said to have said.
The woman is angry with her former employer for not clearing the factory site in time. Because then the seven dead would still be alive, Borges is sure. Her good friend Judith Lopez-Moran also died. Judith is also the reason why she turns to the media, because a similar accident must be prevented in the future.
(yum)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
