A woman who spent nine hours trapped in the rubble after a deadly explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory may have been saved when she fell into a vat of liquid chocolate.
According to reports, Patricia Borges, who normally operates a machine in the factory, was instead doing maintenance just before 5 p.m. on March 24 when the explosion occurred. Her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building, she told Associated Press, then she fell through the floor into the vat. While the chocolate extinguished her blazing arm, she broke her collarbone and both heels in the fall.
Seven of her co-workers were killed and 10 were taken to hospitals. The cause was still under investigation by noon April 1, but there were several reports that employees smelled natural gas minutes before the explosion.
