El Torito Blamed by State for Fatal Explosion : Accident: $5,000 fine is levied because tank for water heater lacked a safety valve. Restaurant officials deny Cal/OSHA findings.

State officials have blamed El Torito Restaurants Inc. for an explosion that killed one person at the company’s Fashion Island restaurant and have fined the company $5,000, saying a water storage tank blew up because a valve was missing.

Investigators said they believe the potential for similar accidents looms at schools, other restaurants, machine shops, dry cleaners and other businesses that use such equipment.

State officials will soon release a “hazard alert” to notify state inspectors, insurance investigators and possibly restaurants about the potential dangers of improper tank equipment, said John Lemire, head engineer of a section of the state Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Less than half an hour before the Southwestern-style El Torito Grill was to open for Sunday brunch on Aug. 1, the explosion rocked the Fashion Island restaurant, killing bartender Antonio de Santiago, 39, and injuring five others.

The blast caved in a corner of the restaurant, shook nearby buildings and hurled chunks of concrete dozens of yards away.

State officials said a relief valve that costs $8 to $25 would have allowed pressure to escape from the tank--which was connected to a water heater--when it overheated that morning in a storage room. Without the valve, the pressure inside the tank could have reached 500 pounds per square inch, state officials said.

“This is a serious violation,” said Jim Brown, Orange County district manager of the California Occupational Safety Hazard Administration.

Officials of El Torito Restaurants denied Cal/OSHA’s findings Wednesday.

“I am shocked that Cal/OSHA would release this conclusion so prematurely before the Newport Beach Fire Department completes its own investigation,” said Russ Bendel, executive vice president of El Torito Restaurants Inc.

Newport Beach fire officials refused comment on the case pending completion of their investigation.

Bendel maintained that the 115-gallon tank did have a pressure valve, and the equipment was inspected June 18 by its Orange-based maintenance company, Debin & Associates. Officials from the maintenance company and the tank’s manufacturer, Raypak Inc. of Westlake Village, did not return several telephone calls on Wednesday.

Besides missing the valve, the water tank lacked a seal ensuring that it met worldwide safety standards set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and had never been approved by state officials, said Richard Eleinko, a senior safety engineer for the state.

Since the explosion, inspectors have looked at three other El Torito restaurants in Anaheim, Orange and Newport Beach, finding substandard conditions with 21-gallon tanks at each restaurant, Eleinko said.

His office issued a citation for the Anaheim restaurant Friday. Eleinko said the agency may issue citations for other locations this week.

The restaurants will be given 30 days to comply with the order to fix the equipment. If after 30 days no changes are made, inspectors may ask the company to justify its lack of action. The Fashion Island restaurant is scheduled to reopen in mid-September, company officials said.

But the danger may go deeper than El Torito restaurants, state officials said.

“It could be a very big problem,” Eleinko said. “We could have a problem with every restaurant in the state having a non-code tank. Every dry cleaner has a boiler, almost every machine shop does.

“A lot of schools have hot water boilers, and people don’t check them. People don’t realize that if (a heater) blows up, it could take out a whole house.”

In 46 states, 649 accidents occurred with water heaters and boilers in 1992, according to reports from the National Board of Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspectors in Columbus, Ohio. In those accidents, 23 people were hurt and three were killed.

But many water heaters are considered low-pressure equipment not subject to permits or inspection by the state. Often, they are inspected by insurance investigators or city workers instead, Lemire said.

Eleinko suggested that residents or maintenance workers periodically check valves and equipment to avoid such explosions.

Meanwhile, lawyers for about 20 El Torito workers who were in the restaurant at the time of the explosion are considering a lawsuit. But lawyers are unsure if El Torito Restaurants Inc. is at fault.

“If they have hired a competent independent contractor who specializes in maintaining equipment, then (El Torito) would, on the surface of things, be entitled to think that the contractor is going to do his job right,” said attorney Russell Nordstrom.

Maria Fernandez de Santiago of Anaheim, estranged wife of the bartender who died in the accident, said she has not yet considered legal action because she is still helping her two daughters cope with the loss of their father.

“We’re not thinking about anything but the family right now,” she said. “We’re going to the psychologist that El Torito provided for us, but I feel like I’m still going crazy. I had to move my youngest daughter to another school because the school she was at reminded her so much of her father.

“Perhaps later we’ll think about it, but I don’t know.”

Employees hurt in the blast said they were unsure who was at fault, but hope that the accident will draw attention to conditions with similar equipment at other restaurants.

“I believe it was an accident,” said Rosa Ortiz, a bookkeeper who was buried under debris and has recurring dreams of the accident. “But I think it’s something hopefully people will learn from.”