Demolition Firm Fined $22,800 in Fatal Accident
The state Department of Industrial Relations has fined a Compton demolition firm $22,800 in connection with a Jan. 22 accident that killed a worker and injured 23 other people at a Covina shopping center, officials said Friday.
Cal/OSHA investigators said that when Jesus Garcia, 36, of Long Beach clambered down into a pit that had been dug at the site of a former Sears store at the Covina Town Square Mall, he was overcome by carbon monoxide generated by a small welding fire at the bottom of the pit the day before.
The investigators said the gas apparently had failed to disperse because workers extinguished the blaze by smothering it with dirt and then covered the pit with a metal plate topped with more dirt. Among other things, investigators said Lu Mar Industrial Metals Co. failed to develop written rescue procedures and did not test the site for dangerous gases.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
