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Transportation Feds Probing Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Explosion That Killed 7

The National Transportation Safety Board is launching an inquiry into the Friday night explosion in the small town of West Reading.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the deadly explosion and fire at a chocolate factory in a small Pennsylvania town last Friday, the agency said Tuesday. The cause of the explosion, which killed seven people, remains unclear. An initial tweet from the NTSB identified the incident as a “natural gas explosion and fire,” but a spokesperson later clarified that it was an “accident [that] involved a pipeline that transported natural gas,” according to a reporter for CBS Philadelphia. In addition to NTSB’s probe, the explosion at the R.M. Palmer factory in West Reading is being investigated by a number of other agencies, including the Pennsylvania State Police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Several people were also injured in the blast, including Betty Wright, a woman who lives adjacent to the factory. Wright has alleged in a lawsuit since filed against R.M. Palmer that the explosion lifted her off her feet and threw her across the room, “causing severe and permanent injuries.”