On Monday, December 10th, residents in the Werl district of Westönnen, Germany watched as a stream of chocolate flooded the road outside their homes. Just before 8 p.m., an overflow of liquid chocolate escaped the DreiMeister chocolate factory and managed to coat about 10 square meters of Weststrasse, a nearby roadway. Werl officials released a statement shortly after the incident, asking chocolate lovers to stay strong during this tragedy.
According to the Werl fire department’s official statement, a chocolate tank inside DreiMeister had overflowed. An estimated one ton of chocolate oozed its way out of the factory, where it quickly hardened on the cold tar. The fire department was called in to direct traffic and clean up the mess by way of chipping away at the chocolate with shovels and “muscle power,” the statement reads.
The Associated Press reported that firefighters and DreiMeister employees also used hot water and blow torches to ease the chocolate out of holes and cracks in the road.
Even though a literal ton of chocolate tried to make a break for it, the head of DreiMeister, Markus Luckey, said the spill actually happened at the right time. If the company had lost that much chocolate any closer to Christmas, “that would have been a catastrophe,” he said per the AP.
And, of course, the internet couldn’t stop making Willy Wonka jokes.
Willy Wonka couldn’t be reached for comment. https://t.co/3enKUplmgQ
— Roald Dahl (@roald_dahl) December 12, 2018
Craving chocolate now? These will surely satisfy you:
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“Despite this heartbreaking incident, it is unlikely that a chocolate-free Christmas is imminent in Werl,” the fire department stated. Phew!