Pleas Filed in Illegal Dumping That Caused Fire

A subsidiary of Northrop Corp. and one of its employees have pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges in the illegal dumping of 21,000 butane cigarette lighters that caused a flash fire at an Eagle Rock landfill.

Northrop Worldwide Aircraft Services Inc. of Huntington Beach and its district coordinator, Antonio Garmendia, each was charged with one count of illegal disposal of hazardous waste. The company must pay $79,800 in fines, and Garmendia was put on one year’s probation, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lynch.

Worldwide Aircraft has a contract with the U.S. Customs Service to dispose of confiscated goods that infringe on copyrights. The lighters were seized because they were in the shape of miniature Jack Daniel’s whisky bottles.

According to Lynch, Garmendia did not believe the lighters were dangerous. “He had soaked them with water, and whatever danger he perceived he thought the water would take care of it,” Lynch said.

The lighters caught fire April 16 when a Scholl Canyon landfill worker drove a bulldozer over them. The driver was not hurt, even though the bulldozer was engulfed in flames.