Sanitation Agency Lawyers Deny Evasion

An Orange County Sanitation Districts inspector was not instructed to withhold information from state officials investigating a fatal fire at the agency’s Huntington Beach treatment plant, according to a report issued by sanitation agency attorneys.

The sanitation agency’s written response to its board of directors on Wednesday came more than a week after California Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators reported that inspector Larry Wayne McLemore had been told not to disclose information about the possible cause of the Feb. 1 fire that killed two workers, because it “could be embarrassing or incriminating” to the districts.

However, in a transcript of McLemore’s February meeting with Cal/OSHA investigators, which was made public Wednesday, the sanitation inspector said he did not know the cause of the fire. He said he was only instructed by sanitation agency attorneys not to speculate about a possible cause.

Two workers for an Ontario-based engineering firm were killed in the fire, which is being investigated by Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigation.