WEST READING, Pa. — Frankie Gonzalez stood atop a hill overlooking the burned-out wreckage of the R.M. Palmer chocolate factory in West Reading on Saturday afternoon, fiddling with a pair of binoculars and hoping for a glimpse of his sister, as the beeping of rescue workers’ trucks permeated the air.
A powerful explosion tore through the factory in this small Berks County town late Friday, sending a column of black smoke into the sky and killing at least two people. Five others remained missing as of Saturday evening, including Diana Cedeno, Gonzalez’s sister and the family matriarch. She had worked for more than a year in packaging at R.M. Palmer, one of the largest candy manufacturers in the country.
Gonzalez learned of the explosion from his cousin right after it happened. He has not slept since. Instead, he purchased a pair of binoculars, in the hopes he could see his sister carried out from the rubble. And he waited for news, along with Cedeno’s six siblings, her father, her husband and her two children.
