Highlights
- A street in German town of Werl got flooded with chocolate on Monday
- The chocolate spilled out of a production facility and solidified
- 25 firefighters cleared the thick layer off with hot water and shovels
A scene similar to the children's classic Charlie and The Chocolate Factory could be seen playing out in a German town on Monday, December 10, when a 'sweet' mishap at the production facility of chocolatier DreiMeister lead to molten chocolate spilling out on the roads. The photos from the 'chocolate spill' in Westönnen - a suburb of the German town of Werl, located about 40 Kms away from Dortmund - appear so surreal and fictional that people can't help but find humour in the incident. No injuries were reported and the 'disaster' was soon taken care of, with the help of DreiMeister employees and the Westönnen fire department. The fire department also sent out a rather witty press release, letting people know that the potential traffic hazard had been taken care of, by using hot water and shovels.
Talking about the bizarre incident, the fire department's press release in German (translated to English using Google Translate) started with a warning: "Chocolate lovers must remain brave when reading the following lines." The release also said that molten chocolate that had spilled out of the facility had solidified on the streets in a layer that was 10 square meters big! "A chocolate tank in the building had overflowed. About a ton of chocolate ran out into the yard and from there onto the street", was the unusual report that the fire department had received before they were called into action. The street had to be closed off till 10 pm on December 10, due to the chocolate incident. The department release added by saying that a 'specialist company' had to be called to clean the streets after the chocolate layer had been chipped off.
As a number of publications and news organisations around the world covered the 'chocolate disaster', and Twitterati couldn't help but react to it with humour. Take a look at the some of the hilarious Twitter chatter around the chocolate spill in Germany:
But chocolate lovers need not be alarmed by all that wasted chocolate, because the fire department has re-assured everybody that "despite the heartbreaking incident, it is unlikely that a chocolate-free Christmas is imminent in Werl."