Deadly chocolate factory explosion caused by faulty gas fitting, safety board finds

Cascading failures involving a corroded steam pipe and a defective natural gas fitting caused a powerful explosion in 2023 at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory, killing seven workers when the company failed to evacuate, a federal safety board said Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board said the factory failed to have natural gas emergency procedures in place that could have resulted in an immediate evacuation. Palmer Company’s insufficient emergency response procedures and training of its employees, who did not understand the hazard and did not evacuate the buildings before the explosion,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in its statement of probable cause, approved Tuesday at the board’s meeting in Washington, D.C. Palmer has since adopted a revised policy on evacuations, but Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB board chair, said it’s still insufficient because it advises staff to investigate and determine if evacuation is necessary. “By not addressing the threat posed by the steam pipe, UGI Corporation’s distribution integrity management program was not effective in preventing the accident,” the safety board said in its findings.