Family Sues in El Torito Explosion Death : Courts: Bartender’s wife and children file claim against makers and vendor of a water heater and storage tank blamed for blast that killed him and injured five other workers.

The family of a bartender killed in an explosion at a Newport Beach restaurant in August has filed a lawsuit against the makers and vendor of a water heater and storage tank blamed as the cause of the blast.

Antonio De Santiago, 39, was preparing for brunch at the El Torito Grill on Aug. 1 when an explosion ripped through the popular Southwestern-style restaurant. De Santiago was killed and five other workers were injured.

In the weeks after the blast at Fashion Island, state officials fined El Torito Restaurants Inc. $5,000, saying a 115-gallon water storage tank blew up because a valve was missing.

Lawyers for De Santiago’s estranged wife, Maria Luisa Fernandez De Santiago, and his two children, Mireya and Eloisa, filed their lawsuit Nov. 5 in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. They are suing Debin Enterprises Inc., the equipment vendor; Rheem Manufacturing Co. and Raypack Inc., a Rheem subsidiary, the equipment manufacturers; and Honeywell Inc., makers of the controls on the equipment.

Representatives of Debin Enterprises and officials from Rheem, Raypack and Honeywell could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Cal/OSHA officials stated in a report in August that the restaurant’s water tank was stopped up with a threaded metal plug, instead of having a pressure-release valve.

Irvine attorney Theodore S. Wentworth, who is representing De Santiago’s family, said it would be premature to name El Torito Restaurants Inc. as a defendant.

“Boilers have been around for many years and they don’t explode for no apparent reason,” Wentworth said. He said additional defendants may be named later as lawyers probe why the water pressure got as high as it did in the tank and why the pressure in the tank was not released.