{"id":567391,"date":"2023-03-25T20:30:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/2-dead-5-missing-in-chocolate-factory-explosion\/"},"modified":"2023-03-25T20:30:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T17:30:08","slug":"2-dead-5-missing-in-chocolate-factory-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/2-dead-5-missing-in-chocolate-factory-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"#2 dead, 5 missing in chocolate factory explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"
WEST READING, Pa. (AP) \u2014 An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania on Friday killed two people and left five people missing, authorities said. One person was pulled from the rubble overnight.<\/p>\n

Rescue crews using dogs and imaging equipment continued to search through the rubble Saturday \u2014 hours after the blast that erupted just before 5 p.m. Friday at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in the borough of West Reading, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

West Reading officials said Saturday they could confirm only two fatalities. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency had earlier said there were five fatalities, citing county emergency management officials, but after an update from the county also indicated that two had died and five were missing.<\/p>\n

Chief of Police Wayne Holben said the rescue of one person from the rubble \u201cprovides hope that others still may be found.\u201d Rescue workers were continuing a thorough search using specialized equipment and techniques. Officials said dogs and imaging equipment were being used to look for signs of life during the careful removal of debris.<\/p>\n

Holben said the blast destroyed one building and damaged a neighboring building. The cause remains under investigation, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty leveled,\u201d Mayor Samantha Kaag said of the explosion site. \u201cThe building in the front, with the church and the apartments, the explosion was so big that it moved that building four feet forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

A UGI Utilities spokesperson said crews were brought in after damage from the blast led to the release of gas that was helping to feed the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not receive any calls regarding a gas leak or gas order prior to the incident, but we are cooperating with the investigation and part of that will be to check all our facilities in the vicinity,\u201d UGI spokesperson Joseph Swope said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Eight people were taken to Reading Hospital Friday evening, Tower Health spokeswoman Jessica Bezler said. Two were admitted in fair condition and five were being treated and would be released, she said in an email. One patient was transferred to another facility, but Bezler provided no further details.<\/p>\n

Kaag said people were asked to move back about a block in each direction but no evacuations were ordered. She had issued an emergency declaration only to allow more resources for first responders. Borough manager Dean Murray said some residents were displaced from the damaged apartment building.<\/p>\n

Philip Wert, vice president of the West Reading council, said the building had been constructed in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and officials had to \u201caccess our archive to pull the blueprints last night, in order to get a better layout of the building and the mechanicals and the utilities, where things are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe silver lining in all this is someone was found alive, someone was found alive that was in rubble, not knowing whether they were going to live or die, and fortunately we found that person and they\u2019ve got a second chance, and hopefully fingers crossed we\u2019re going to find more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Officials said R.M. Palmer, which Murray described as \u201ca staple of the borough,\u201d was expected to make a statement shortly.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s website says it has been making \u201cchocolate novelties\u201d since 1948 and now has 850 employees at its West Reading headquarters.<\/p>\n

Originally published <\/span>

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WEST READING, Pa. (AP) \u2014 An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania on Friday killed two people and left five people missing, authorities said. One person was pulled from the rubble overnight. Rescue crews using dogs and imaging equipment continued to search through the rubble Saturday \u2014 hours after the blast that erupted just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":567392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/MYS.EnNTG4L_XNH6Ao9_vQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD05MDA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ap.org\/0dbf15ac1eaed3992c140e311b00a101","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}