Vincent Smith II died around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday after falling into a vat of melting chocolate at a New Jersey chocolate processing plant.

The 29-year-old man was dumping raw chocolate into the 8 feet deep, 14 feet long and 6 feet wide vat when he fell from a nine-foot platform.

The vat was churning a batch of chocolate for Hershey’s and Smith suffered a fatal blow to the head from a blade stirring the chocolate.

Three other people were on the platform at the time, but were unable to save Smith, who was trapped in the vat for nearly 10 minutes before being freed.  One co-worker shut off the machine, while two others tried to pull him out.

The facility is owned by Cocoa Services Inc., and operated and managed by Lyons and Sons.

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