‘WILL NOT REST’

Seven Dead After Historic Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Explodes

Authorities said the bodies of all presumed missing persons had been recovered after the Friday explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory.

Four more bodies were found on Sunday after a chocolate factory in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania exploded on Friday evening, bringing the tragedy’s total death toll to seven, according to local authorities. “Tonight, we were able to announce that all seven presumptive missing have been found,” West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag, who is also a firefighter, said in a statement. She added that the identities of the dead would not be shared until next of kin had been contacted and given “time to process” the loss. “This is just the beginning as the investigation efforts star,” Kaag said later. The cause of the explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory in West Reading, which lies nearly 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, remains unclear. “We’re just trying to hold out as much hope as we can to get the right answers, to get quality answers, to get information to those that are affected and then let it go over to the investigation,” Kaag said earlier.