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‘THOUGHT IT WAS THE END’

Penn. Factory Blast Survivor Says She Was Trapped in Chocolate Vat for 9 Hours

Patricia Borges said her arm caught fire before the floor collapsed beneath her and she plunged.

Smoke emanates from the R.M. Palmer factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania.

Twitter @Based_In410 via Reuters

By Victor Swezey

A survivor of the explosion and fire that killed seven at a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, last week is telling her harrowing story. In an interview with the Associated Press, Patricia Borges, a machinery operator at R.M. Palmer, said her arm caught fire as the building went up in flames, leading the floor to cave in beneath her feet. That was the moment Borges fell into a vat of liquid chocolate, where she broke her collarbone and both ankles and was trapped for nine hours. “When I began to burn, I thought it was the end for me,” the 50-year-old said.

Read it at Associated Press

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