Contractor Calls Blaze a ‘Tremendous Disaster’

Ronald N. Tutor, the hard-driving, outspoken boss of the Metro Rail’s largest contractor, called the fire that raged through the $35-million tunnel that his crews were building a “tremendous disaster.”

But he quickly added that the tunnel fire is “one isolated tragedy” in upward of $2 billion in public works contracts completed by his company. Isolated though the fire may be, the Sylmar-based Tutor-Saliba Corp. and its boss have made their share of waves in a notoriously tough business.

Tutor and his firm have been enmeshed in scores of suits over the years. Tutor-Saliba has been cited nearly 300 times for safety violations by Cal/OSHA since 1979. A spokesman for the state’s occupational safety and health agency said 9.3% were considered serious, and a “very low” number of willful violations.

The federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration also has cited the firm. But in two inspections last year of the tunnel that smolders today, OSHA apparently found no violations, said Marsha Grueber, director of OSHA in California.

Tutor-Saliba, one of the largest contractors in California, has won many lucrative and high-profile government contracts. Its jobs include a $180-million piece of the New York subway renovation and part of the $58-million overhaul of the San Francisco cable-car system.

The firm also was one of the lead contractors in the construction of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, the San Diego Convention Center and the widening of the Ventura Freeway.

It found one of its biggest projects in the Metro Rail. Out of about 20 general contractors working on the $1.4-billion Metro Rail, Tutor-Saliba has the largest number of contracts--five--and its share is the richest--$207.5 million.

RTD spokesman Greg Davy said if the investigation proves that the contractor was at fault, “he’ll probably have to eat” the costs associated with the blaze.

Tutor refused to discuss his theory about the cause of the fire.

In three of its separate Metro Rail contractors, Tutor-Saliba is involved in joint ventures with Perini Corp., a Framingham, Mass., firm that is the 25th-largest contractor in the nation.

Perini is the main contractor on the renovation of the New York City subway system. On $180 million worth of work, Tutor-Saliba is a partner. In November, workers from the firms left debris on tracks, causing a small explosion that shorted out a rail and resulted in major delays along the Lexington line.

Perini also is a target of a suit by the New York attorney general over the 1987 collapse of a New York State Thruway bridge that killed 10 people.

Times staff writers Jennifer Toth in New York and Harold Maass in San Francisco contributed to this story.