West Reading chocolate factory did not evacuate employees before explosion despite gas leak, federal investigation finds

R.M. Palmer Co. was responsible for the deaths of seven people in an explosion at its West Reading, Berks County, chocolate factory in March, a report from the U.S. Department of Labor found.

Officials from the popular Pennsylvania candy company failed to evacuate employees after several reported a natural gas odor at the plant on South Second Avenue, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a report issued Thursday. In the blast that resulted from the leak, seven people were killed, 11 others were injured, and three families were displaced.

Six of the victims killed in the explosion — Diana M. Cedeño, 44; Amy S. Sandoe, 49; Judith Lopez-Moran, 55; Domingo Cruz, 60; Michael D. Breedy, 62; and Susan H. Halvonik, 63 — died of blast injuries, the Berks County Coroner’s Office announced earlier this year. One victim, Xiorky D. Nuñez, 30, died of thermal burns.

“Seven workers will never return home because the R.M. Palmer Co. did not evacuate the facility after being told of a suspected gas leak,” OSHA area director Kevin T. Chambers said in a statement. “Ensuring the safety of a workplace is expected of employers and required by law. The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures.”

A wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Lopez-Morgan in April claims that workers at the factory smelled natural gas on the day of the explosion, but that the company “did nothing.” Instead of evacuating, the lawsuit alleges, R.M. Palmer officials “made a representation to the factory workers, including Judith Lopez-Moran, that the factory was safe and that there was no gas leak.” As a result, the suit claimed, the company “intended to mislead the factory workers ... so that the factory workers would continue working and so that factory downtime would be minimized.”

OSHA issued about $44,500 in penalties across several citations that included not clearly marking emergency exits, recordkeeping violations, and failure to safely use flexible cords. According to OSHA, the company has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference, or contest the report’s findings.

The company plans to “vigorously contest OSHA’s citations, which it believes are legally and factually unsupported,” an R.M. Palmer spokesperson said in a statement. However, the company noted in its statement, an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation prevents it from “commenting substantively” on OSHA’s findings. The company said it “continues to cooperate in the NTSB’s investigation.”

In July, the NTSB released an update on its investigation, saying that the gas leaks connected to the fatal explosion came from two nearby service tees — fittings that connect pipes — that were installed in 1982 and 2021. The fitting from 1982, investigators found, was fractured between two of Palmer’s buildings about two feet from a steam line, condensate line, and heated chocolate pipelines.

During a 2021 project at the factory, workers moved a gas meter from the basement of one building to its exterior, and a new service line and service tee were installed. The tee from 1982 was retired during that project, but was still connected to the gas system, investigators found.

In addition, the NTSB update said, that 1982 fitting had been added to a list of materials that had “poor performance histories relative to brittle-like cracking” in 2007.

In its statement, R.M. Palmer noted that the NTSB update “contains no reference to any natural gas leak inside any Palmer building.”

“We have always put the safety of our employees and community first,” the company’s statement read. “It is our number-one priority, and we are committed to providing a safe working environment.”