Flags ordered to half-staff to honor 7 dead in plant blast

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — The governor Pennsylvania has ordered commonwealth flags flown at half-staff in honor of seven people whose bodies were recovered from the site of a powerful explosion at a chocolate factory. The announcement Monday came the morning after the remaining bodies were found at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading. Mayor Samantha Kaag called it “a devastating loss.” The Berks County coroner’s office on Monday identified two of the victims as 49-year-old Amy Sandoe of Ephrata and 60-year-old Domingo Cruz of Reading and said more tests are needed to positively identify the other five victims. The blast happened about 5 p.m. Friday. The cause remains under investigation.