Factory Worker Dies After Falling Into Vat of Chocolate
A 22-year-old factory worker died Wednesday after he fell into a vat of boiling chocolate at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey, police said.
The Camden County prosecutor's office identified the victim as Vincent Smith II. He was a temporary worker at the Cocoa Services Inc. plant.
Smith had been in the melting pot for about 10 minutes by the time rescue crews arrived, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.
Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull Smith out of the 8-foot-deep vat. He was hit and fatally injured by the agitator that mixes the chocolate.
By the time he was pulled out of the tank just after 11 a.m., he was already dead... [Fox]
Reading this, I had a feeling of deja vu -- had I seen this story before? Yes...
Worker Drowns in Vat of Chocolate
July 25, 2002
A Pennsylvania factory worker has drowned in a 1,200-gallon vat of melted milk chocolate, swallowed up by the gooey, quicksand-like mixture.
Yoni Cordon, 19, of Philadelphia, an employee of the Kargher Corp. in Hatfield Township, apparently tumbled from a platform into the 7-foot-deep vat, which is used for mixing and melting chocolate.
But nobody saw the accident, and Cordon couldn't save himself.
"It was like quicksand," said Jim Viscusi, assistant chief of the Volunteer Medical Service Corps of nearby Lansdale, which was first rescue unit on the scene.
"We found the gentleman immersed in the vat. It was not the heat - but [the chocolate] is particularly sticky." Viscusi said it would have been difficult for anyone to extricate himself from the vat without immediate help...
Cordon was pronounced dead at the scene by the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.
It was not known how long he had been in the vat... [NYDN]
The candy factory is not as safe a place as it may seem. This must be why Ooompa-Loompas get the big bucks. If you ever find a piece of shoelace in a Kit Kat bar...
link, posted at 1:23 PM
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