READING (AP) – A worker pulled alive from the rubble of the R.M. Palmer Company after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the ruined building and then fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate. Patricia Borges recounted her terrifying brush with death and her miraculous survival. Borges says she and others had complained about a gas odor about 30 minutes before the March 24 blast at the West Reading chocolate factory. She is angry the factory didn’t immediately evacuate its workers. She broke her collarbone and both heels and faces a long recovery.
PATRICIA BORGES