Jumbled wreckage complicates U.S. chocolate factory blast probe
CTV
Investigators looking for the cause of a deadly explosion that levelled part of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory faced an even more difficult task Monday as they combed through wreckage that was extensively picked apart and moved around during the intensive weekend search for victims and survivors.
Investigators looking for the cause of a deadly explosion that levelled part of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory faced an even more difficult task Monday as they combed through wreckage that was extensively picked apart and moved around during the intensive weekend search for victims and survivors.
Seven people were killed and several others wounded in the powerful blast at the R.M Palmer Co. plant in West Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles (96 kilometres) northwest of Philadelphia. One survivor was pulled from the rubble hours after the explosion rattled windows and shook houses.
With the recovery effort now over, attention turned to identifying the cause -- a task complicated by the jumbled wreckage.
"The No. 1 goal of this, once the fire was out, gas stopped, is to look for the victims," Pennsylvania State Police Master Trooper David Beohm said at a news conference Monday afternoon. "So with that, when they picked the building apart with the excavator, yes, it makes it really hard then to try to figure out things. ... It makes it really difficult to try to come up with a cause."
Authorities declined to address reports that plant workers had detected an odor of gas before the explosion. The gas utility UGI said it had received no reports of a gas leak at the family-owned candy company.
"Everything's on the table at this point because we're still not done with the investigation. To say it's one way or another, I would not say that at this point," Beohm said. Two state police fire marshals are working to determine the cause and origin of the blast, he said.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which regulates workplace safety, was also at the site.
