Successive failures involving a corroded steam line and a faulty natural gas fitting caused a powerful explosion at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory in 2023, killing seven workers when the company failed to evacuate, a federal safety board said Tuesday.
Approximately 70 production employees and 35 office employees at RM Palmer Co. were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the explosion. Employees in both buildings told federal investigators they could smell gas before the explosion. Workers at the plant have accused the company of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant, in a small town 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, should have been evacuated.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the plant did not have natural gas emergency procedures in place that could have led to an immediate evacuation. The explosion leveled one building and heavily damaged another, sending flames more than 70 feet into the air and causing $42 million in property damage.
“Contributing to the severity of the accident were RM Palmer Company’s inadequate emergency response procedures and the training of its employees, who failed to understand the hazard and to evacuate the buildings before the explosion,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in its statement on the probable cause. approved Tuesday at the board meeting in Washington, DC
Palmer has since adopted a revised policy on evacuations, but Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB’s board chair, says it is still insufficient as it advises staff to investigate and determine if evacuation is necessary.
“That’s exactly what they did in this scenario,” she said. “No, you’re leaving.” Their answer now is that there are different smells in their building because chocolate is made there. You know the difference between natural gas smell and chocolate. “Leave immediately.” So I think this is causing a lot of confusion among their employees and they need to change this.”
Palmer said in a statement that “not a day goes by that we do not remember and reflect on the heartbreaking loss of several colleagues and friends on that tragic day,” adding that “the health, safety and well-being of our employees is taken very seriously ” and will continue to work with regulators.
The federal agency also described the role of UGI Corp., the gas company that provided service to the West Reading candy factory.
An old Palmer steam line that was already badly corroded finally burst, allowing steam to escape and raising the temperature of UGI’s gas fitting — so much so that it also burst, federal safety investigators found. The gas then migrated underground and made its way to the basement of Palmer’s second building, where it exploded. Investigators were unable to determine the source of ignition.
A UGI crew that replaced gas lines in the area in 2021 — two years before the explosion — was alerted to the presence of the steam line but failed to notify the utility’s safety managers so the line could be assessed for its impact on the gas fitting. ultimately failed, the five-member Security Council noted.
“By failing to address the threat posed by the steam pipe, UGI Corporation’s distribution integrity management program was ineffective in preventing the accident,” the safety board said in its findings. The board also said there was a delay in turning off the gas after the explosion because UGI had not properly marked the valves – and a critical valve was covered.
UGI said it is investigating the findings.
“Safety remains our top priority in the communities we serve, where we work and where we live. UGI continues to work with customers who also operate underground steam lines to ensure that their systems and our natural gas systems can work together safely,” said John Mason, a company spokesperson. He said the company has “fully cooperated” with NTSB.
The failed service T-shirt is made by DuPont and has a well-known tendency to crack. The plastic pipes are still in widespread use across the country, but the safety council said many utilities may not be aware of the locations where they are most vulnerable to failure due to high temperatures.
UGI had the opportunity to repair the defective tee during the 2021 pipeline replacement project but did not do so, council investigators said.
“They knew for decades that these were dangerous, brittle pipes. It should have been fixed,” said Andrew Duffy, an attorney representing explosion victims civil procedure. “It is a shocking failure in an industry whose sole responsibility is to transport gas safely through pipelines.”
Board member J. Todd Inman compared the Palmer explosion to a 1996 explosion at a shoe store in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that killed 33 people, and said the NTSB raised many of the same issues at the time. Federal regulators have long said that much of the plastic pipe manufactured for natural gas supplies between the 1960s and early 1980s was prone to cracking.
“Sometimes you think we can learn our lesson, or at least the operators can,” he said.
The NTSB has issued a series of recommendations for UGI and other utilities, regulators, state governments and RM Palmer himself. One recommendation: that businesses, homes, schools and other buildings served by natural gas install alarms that can detect a leak.