Chocolate plant working to reopen after death

The Camden plant where a man died after falling into a vat of chocolate is working to reopen after authorities found code violations.

Vincent Smith II died July 8 after falling into an eight-foot tank that was melting and mixing solid blocks of chocolate.

Smith, a temporary worker of two weeks, was standing over the tank and throwing in the blocks of chocolate, which would have been used to make Hershey's candy.

After his death, code-enforcement officials said the plant had no registered business license or certificate of occupancy. Federal health officials shut down the plant until the contaminated chocolate could be discarded.

Yesterday, building owner Lyons & Sons produced a certificate of occupancy from April 2001, when it added a chocolate-processing service to its cocoa bean warehouse operation, said Iraida Afanador, Camden code enforcement director. But the building never had a business license to process chocolate, she said.

Additionally, on Wednesday code-enforcement officials found plumbing, fire, and electrical violations. The building owner is working to correct those in the hope of applying for a business license and reopening by next week, Afanador said.

Lyons & Sons is scheduled to appear in court July 28, pending a charge of operating without a license for eight years, Afanador said. The company could be retroactively fined as much $1,250 per week, she added.