Produce Packing Facility Partly Destroyed : Gas Blast Injures 1 at Camarillo Plant

An explosion in a produce packing plant on the edge of Camarillo critically injured one person Thursday and destroyed a third of the building, a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said.

The cause of the explosion was unknown and was under investigation.

A team of 25 hazardous-material specialists, brought in because of danger from a gas used to ripen tomatoes, searched through a jumble of ruined wood, sheet metal and bits of insulation for more victims but found none.

The plant, owned by the Milton Poulos Corp. of Camarillo, lies on county property between Camarillo and Oxnard. An explosion in the tomato-ripening and storage section about 5:30 p.m., during a change in plant shifts, blew debris as far as 300 feet, Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman Paula Aliano said.

A 44-year old employee, Amao Douglas of Oxnard, was in critical condition with severe injuries to his face and a broken leg, said a nursing supervisor at St. Johns Medical Center in Oxnard. Firefighters said he suffered burns in the explosion.

The explosion occurred in a 10,500-square-foot area where a gas process is used to ripen tomatoes, firefighters said. The plant is surrounded by fields, and no homes were threatened.

Douglas was alone in the building, working with tanks of compressed ethylene gas, when the explosion occurred, Fire Department officials said.

Firefighters trained in dealing with hazardous materials, wearing protective gear, could enter the plant only for brief periods because ethylene gas gives off toxic fumes when heated, Aliano said.

Besides hazardous material specialists, a team of about 25 others responded to the explosion, including workers from the county departments of Environmental Health and Building and Safety, as well as from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Aliano said.