Factory Explosion Survivor, on Fire, Fell Into Chocolate Vat

Factory Explosion Survivor, on Fire, Fell Into Chocolate Vat
Patricia Borges is interviewed at Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pa., on March 25, 2023. AP Photo
The Associated Press
Updated:

A woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says flames had engulfed the building, and her arm, when the floor gave way beneath her. That might have been the end, if she hadn’t fallen into a vat of liquid chocolate.

The dark liquid extinguished her blazing arm, but Patricia Borges wound up breaking her collarbone and both of her heels. She would spend the next nine hours screaming for help and waiting for rescue as firefighters battled the inferno and choppers thumped overhead at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory.