A street paved in chocolate sounds like a dream, but firefighters in Werl, Germany might beg to differ.
DreiMeister, a German chocolate factory, had an unfortunate incident when liquid chocolate began pouring out onto the street in the middle of winter at 8 p.m. on Monday. NBC News reported, “’About a tonne of chocolate ran out into the yard and from there onto the street,’ a spokesman for the Werl fire department said in a statement.” The chocolate covered 108 square feet, congealing and hardening on Weststrasse, the nearest road, creating a traffic hazard and causing a street closure for two hours.
According to the Werl fire department, 25 firefighters broke apart the hardened chocolate with “shovels and muscle power.” But despite the spill, the fire department has reassured citizens in the western town of Westönnen, where the factory is located, that Christmas won’t be ruined.
“‘Despite this heartbreaking incident, it is unlikely that a chocolate-free Christmas is imminent,’ the fire department said,” reported BBC News. And DreiMeister’s chief executive Marcus Luckey made clear that had the spill happened closer to Christmas, it would have been a “catastrophe.” As it is, the factory reopened Wednesday.
As you might imagine, Roald Dahl HQ had something to say about the incident on Twitter: “Willy Wonka couldn’t be reached for comment.”
Crazily enough, this isn’t the first chocolate spill to happen in 2018. Earlier this year, a truck overturned in Warsaw, Poland, covering the highway with 12 tons of molten chocolate. The chocolate hardened over six lanes of the highway, forcing rescue officials to melt it with hot water. “Senior brigadier Bogdan Kowalski with the fire brigade of Slupca, a town in western Poland, said, ‘the cooling chocolate is worse than snow,’” according to the AP.
Video of the chocolate being scooped up by a loader was posted on Twitter:
Although most of the rescue officials were having a good time during the clean-up, The Washington Post reported, “A local journalist was less fortunate. TVN24 reported that one of its reporters at the scene was walking along the edge of the shoulder to avoid the chocolate only to slip and fall into a ditch, where there was, indeed, more chocolate.”
And back in 2016, a Frito-Lay truck collided with a Busch beer truck in Florida, causing chips and beer to be strewn over the highway. The two drivers were not seriously injured, the AP reported, “However, their cargo was not so lucky. The crash spilled beer and chips across the roadway, causing police to shut down the southbound lanes for three hours while a clean-up crew was called in to clear the lanes of booze and snacks.”
Kare 11 News had its own take on the spill on Twitter: “5 second rule? Busch Beer semi hits Frito Lay truck, spilling beer and chips on Fla. hwy.”