PA Task Force 1, Reading Hospital staff critical in search and rescue efforts at RM Palmer explosion
BERKS COUNTY, Pa.– Search and rescue efforts lasted throughout the weekend at the site of an explosion at candy factory, RM Palmer in West Reading. Both Pennsylvania Task Force One and the staff at Tower Health's Reading Hospital were interictal helping during this phase.
"These men and women drop whatever they're doing when the incident happens," Ken Pagurek, PA-TF1's program manager, said.
The urban search and rescue team was called in to help by PEMA around 6 p.m. Friday night and left in the early morning hours Monday. Thirty members, along with K9s came to Berks County to assist.
"Were there people potentially at exit doors if we had a map and there were exit doors? Could we delay down to those locations and find somebody? Break room locations – things of that nature?" Pagurek said those are just some of the questions the team works to answer in order to locate those trapped.
.@PATaskForce1 worked around the clock at the RM Palmer site during search & rescue operations.
— Nikki DeMentri (@nikkidementri) March 30, 2023
They helped pull out a woman alive from the rubble hours after the explosion.
We’re sharing their story plus the perspective from a Reading Hospital doc at 4:30 @CBSPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/cUOjrH7D6Y
Early Saturday morning – the task force, with the help of other first responders, pulled out one woman alive.
"They were cribbing and shoring as they progressed into the basement of the property where they heard her screaming and they were able to locate her and extricate her," Pagurek said
While the hope is to rescue as many survivors as possible, Pagurek said it is also their mission to bring closure to families as they recover victims.
"This is real. This is our community. We have to be able to reach out to our community and care for them any way that we possibly can," Dr. Herbert Schiffer with Tower Health said.
The Medical Director of Tower Direct responded to the scene moments after the explosion with a medical resident. The two were meeting with others from Reading Hospital for lunch to discuss an upcoming mass casualty simulation when they got the call the explosion happened.
"When we got there we saw the absolute destruction of the building – actually a number of buildings there and from there we started to integrate into the leadership team and coordinate what we could until we could get to some patients that needed help," Dr. Schiffer said.
Dr. Schiffer helped with extrication efforts before prepping patients to be transported to nearby Reading Hospital. The doctor then went in to work overnight in the emergency room – where all 10 injured were taken.
"This affects not only the community in West Reading but also a number of people on my staff at Tower Direct have been emotionally hurt by this," Dr. Schiffer said.
Nearly a week after the deadly explosion – only one injured patient remains at Reading Hospital as the healing in the community begins.
"You are not forgotten. This incident may be coming to a close from the acute phase, but this is going to be an ongoing thing," Dr. Schiffer said.