A woman pulled alive from the rubble of a West Reading, chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building - and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.
Others workers have also said they smelled natural gas, according to their relatives. Palmer, a 75-year-old, family-run company with deep roots in the small town 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has not responded to questions about the workers' claims.
At 4:30 p.m., Borges told the AP, she smelled natural gas. It was strong and nauseated her. Borges and her co-workers approached their supervisor, asking "what was going to be done, if we were going to be evacuated," she recalled. She began to run. That's when the floor gave way, and she could feel herself falling - into a long, horizontal tank of chocolate in the factory's basement. At 4 feet, 10 inches tall, Borges landed on her feet in chest-high liquid.The vat began filling with water from firefighters' hoses, eventually forcing Borges to climb out as it reached neck level. She sat on the lip of the tank, then jumped into a pool of water that had formed on the basement floor.
"She was severely hypothermic and banged up," conscious but "absolutely confused," said Ken Pagurek, who helped lead rescue efforts as program manager of Pennsylvania Task Force 1, an emergency response team that deploys to disaster sites around the country.
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Factory explosion survivor, on fire, fell into chocolate vatA woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the ruined building — and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate
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Factory explosion survivor, on fire, fell into chocolate vatA woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building - and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.
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Factory explosion survivor, on fire, fell into chocolate vatA woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building - and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.
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Factory explosion survivor, on fire, fell into chocolate vatA woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building - and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.
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Factory explosion survivor, on fire, fell into chocolate vatA woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the ruined building — and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate. Patricia Borges (BOHR'-hez) recounted her terrifying brush with death and her miraculous survival to The Associated Press. Borges says she and others had complained about a gas odor about 30 minutes before the factory blew up. She is angry the factory didn’t immediately evacuate its workers. She broke her collarbone and both heels and faces a long recovery.
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