Along with the two dead and nine missing, six people were transported to medical facilities, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) said.
The “virtually razed” factory
The factory “was almost razed to the ground, unfortunately. There’s not much that can be salvaged from the building,’ West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said in a televised press conference. Television footage showed a fire raging through the rubble after the explosion as firefighters tried to put it out.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation, authorities said. The hypothesis of a gas leak was raised by PEMA. According to its website, RM Palmer had been producing chocolates in this factory since 1948 for celebrations such as chocolate bunnies for Easter or chocolate hearts for Valentine’s Day.
