WEST READING, Pa. (AP/KYW Newsradio) — A Pennsylvania chocolate factory was fined more than $44,000 by the federal workplace safety agency on Thursday for failing to evacuate before a natural gas explosion that killed seven people.
R.M. Palmer Co. did not heed warnings from employees about a natural gas leak, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which issued multiple citations to the company.
“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, of the agency’s Harrisburg office, said in a written statement. “The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures.”
Palmer denied it violated any workplace safety standards and said it would contest the OSHA citations, which the company said are “legally and factually unsupported.” The company said OSHA has no evacuation procedure specific to a natural gas explosion hazard.
"Palmer’s fire evacuation procedures would have sent our many employees from both buildings to a muster point on a sidewalk across the street from the buildings or in a parking lot behind another building," Palmer said. "Until the NTSB’s investigation is complete, there is simply no basis to evaluate OSHA’s statement that an evacuation would have prevented the seven tragic deaths that occurred."
The powerful natural gas explosion leveled one building and heavily damaged another at the Palmer factory complex in West Reading. Investigators have previously said they are looking at a pair of gas leaks as a possible cause of or contributor to the blast.
About 70 Palmer production workers and 35 office staff were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the March 24 blast. Employees in both buildings told federal investigators they could smell gas before the explosion.
Workers at the plant have accused Palmer of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant should have been evacuated.
“While OSHA addressed the workplace today and the smell of gas, the bottom line is this gas explosion and gas leak never should have happened,” said Andrew Duffy, whose law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky represents several families involved in the blast.
He said they plan to move forward with lawsuits to get justice for everyone involved.
“The more the families learn about the incompetence of all involved is just that much more frustrating,” he added.
OSHA said Palmer has 15 business days to pay the fines, ask for an informal conference or contest the details from the investigation.