READING, PA. — The R.M. Palmer Co. is contesting the US Department of Labor finding that the candy company failed to evacuate employees after some reported smelling gas before a March 24 explosion that killed seven employees at the company’s facility in West Reading, Pa. The R.M. Palmer Co. was fined $44,483.

The DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found R.M. Palmer did not remove workers from the plant despite workers’ concerns about what OSHA later determined was a natural gas leak. OSHA also cited the company for not marking emergency exit signs clearly, using flexible cords improperly and recordkeeping violations.

“Seven workers will never return home because the R.M. Palmer Co. did not evacuate the facility after being told of a suspected gas leak,” said Kevin T. Chambers, an OSHA area director based in Harrisburg, Pa., when the findings were announced Oct. 5. “Ensuring the safety of a workplace is expected of employers and required by law. The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures.”

R.M. Palmer called the statement “inflammatory, callous and irresponsible.” The company will dispute all DOL citations.

R.M. Palmer pointed to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that found natural gas was leaking from a service tee under a public road less than 2 feet from underground piping that ran between the R.M. Palmer headquarters building and the building that exploded. An NTSB materials laboratory found a longitudinal crack in the service tee. The NTSB update issued on July 19 contained no reference to a natural gas leak inside any R.M. Palmer building.

The leaking service tee was installed in 1982. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said the type of service tee that was leaking was among a list of pipe materials with “poor performance histories relative to brittle-like cracking.”

Fire evacuation procedures f or R.M. Palmer would have sent employees from both buildings to a point on a sidewalk across the street from the buildings or in a parking lot behind another building. Until the NTSB completes its investigation, there is no basis to evaluate OSHA’s statement that an evacuation would have prevented the deaths, according to R.M. Palmer.

Based in West Reading, R.M. Palmer Co. has manufactured chocolate and other confections at its Pennsylvania facility since 1948.