Death toll climbs to 7 in Pennsylvania candy factory explosion as all missing individuals are accounted for, officials
Two additional bodies have been found by search and rescue teams working to locate missing individuals after the explosion of an eastern Pennsylvania candy factory last week, raising the incident’s death toll to seven people, officials said Sunday.
“We do believe them to be the remaining presumptive missing individuals,” Wayne Holben, Chief of the West Reading Police Department, said at a news conference.
Now that all missing individuals have been accounted for, the focus will shift to an investigation of the explosion, West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said.
The explosion erupted shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, leveling the R.M. Palmer Co. facility and stunning West Reading – a community of about 4,500 people which has been home to the chocolatier’s operation for more than six decades.
By Monday afternoon, the Berks County Coroner’s Office had identified two of the seven victims as Amy Sandoe, 49, and Domingo Cruz, 60.
Positive identification of the remaining five victims will require “(a)dditional forensic medical examinations,” the office said in a news release, adding autopsies were expected to be complete by the end of the week.
Three buildings surrounding the factory will be condemned as a precaution, Kaag said. She explained the buildings need to be assessed by structural engineers before “being released.” “This does not mean they are slated for demolition or uninhabitable,” she said in a statement.
Search and rescue teams raced against time over the weekend as they looked for missing people, using drones and heat imaging devices before turning to heavy equipment to “methodically” remove rubble, Holben said.
One woman was rescued alive among the rubble on Saturday morning, the police chief said. The survivor was conscious when she was discovered, he said, but there was no update on her condition as of Sunday.
A candlelight vigil will be held for the victims at 7:30 p.m. Friday, the mayor announced. Kaag said in her statement the victims will not be identified until their families have been notified and “have had time to process.”
“We will continue to work diligently to get in contact with families on a personal level and provide them and anyone affected resources,” the mayor said. “I think I speak for everyone around me when I say that we will rest when the families can rest.”
EXCLUSIVE
The ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Cast ‘Went Crazy’ on Raquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval at Season 10 ReunionOff the rails. As expected, Raquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval were in the hot seat at the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion — and things nearly got out of hand, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“The cast was out of control and Lala Kent and James Kennedy went crazy,” the source tells Us. “James took on Tom Sandoval while Lala took on Raquel Leviss and they both just lit them on fire and burned them alive with their shade.”
The source adds: “Lala and James literally screamed at Raquel and Tom for hours.”
While the insider notes that the Pump Rules cast doesn’t want “anything to do with” the model, there’s no way for the network to continue the series without her if the show is picked up for season 11.
“It would be impossible to begin filming next season and act like the bombshell affair never happened and Tom and Raquel are still together,” the source explains, claiming that Raquel, 28, was temporarily on the “chopping block” to get fired from the Bravo series because “no one wanted to film with her next season.” (Bravo has yet to renew Vanderpump Rules for season 11, but the source notes the ratings have been “incredible” amid the “buzz” of Scandoval.)
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