Chemical Plant Owner Charged a Year After Fire

The owner of a defunct chemical manufacturing plant in Saticoy was charged Tuesday with the illegal disposal and improper storage of hazardous waste in connection with an explosion and fire at the plant last year that forced the evacuation of 1,500 area residents.

Benjamin Lynn Adams, owner and operator of Pacific Intermediates, also was charged in Ventura Municipal Court with a public nuisance violation stemming from the April 10, 1989, fire, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia W. Strickland, who is handling the case.

Adams, who has not been arrested, faces a maximum penalty of 4 1/2 years in prison and a fine of at least $200,000 if convicted, Strickland said.

Strickland said she expects Adams to be arrested this week, unless he surrenders first. “He’s been very cooperative,” she said.

An arraignment will be set once Adams is in custody, she said.

Adams, who lives in Newbury Park, could not be reached for comment.

The industrial park fire, in which stored chemicals were burned, sent plumes of toxic smoke into the air. Flames billowed 100 feet above the one-story complex. The chemical company and two other businesses were destroyed by the blaze.

About 1,500 area residents were evacuated and were not allowed to return to their homes for more than 12 hours. Although no residents were injured, 17 firefighters were hospitalized after they were overcome by the fumes.

Strickland said charges were not filed against Adams sooner because investigators had some difficulty tracking down and interviewing all of the workers who participated in the cleanup. IT Corp. of Los Angeles, which specializes in cleaning up toxic waste, was hired for the job.

According to court documents, Adams had received repeated notices since 1987 from the Ventura County Fire Department about the improper disposal and storage of chemicals used to manufacture “fish vitamins” and “fish tranquilizers,” used to calm trout so that they can be more easily transported.

“He corrected some violations, but he didn’t correct some of the major ones in our view,” Strickland said.

The district attorney’s office, she said, conducted an investigation of the remaining violations and was in the process of preparing a search warrant of the premises at the time of the fire.

Adams is accused of storing chemicals such as thionyl chloride and trimethyl phosphite in deteriorating and leaking containers, exposing the combustible fluids to temperature changes and creating the potential for a fire or explosion, Strickland said.

The official cause of the blaze has not been determined, but authorities speculated that it may have resulted from a chemical reaction.