Farm Workers’ Deaths Deemed an Industrial Accident

As relatives and friends mourned the deaths of two farm workers, investigators determined Thursday that the incident that claimed their lives at Sespe Ranch was an industrial accident, not the result of foul play.

But exactly how Oxnard residents Miguel Lopez, 43, and Palemon Rangel Yanez, 44, died is still a mystery to authorities, who are continuing to search for clues.

“There are still so many unknowns,” said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for Cal/OSHA, the state agency that oversees worker safety regulations.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department officials said Lopez and Yanez probably climbed into a 1,000-gallon liquid fertilizer tank Tuesday afternoon and were overcome by deadly fumes or drowned in the nearly full tank. But nobody understands why the men would climb into the tank, which is 3 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter and has an access hatch only 20 inches wide.

“This is, to me, a rather bizarre incident,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “With that style of tank and that small of an opening, I would have never thought of somebody going inside of it.”

Results from autopsies and details about a cause of death will not be released until toxicology results are completed in several months, but coroner’s officials said the bodies revealed no signs of trauma or foul play.

The men’s bodies were discovered after Lopez’s wife called to say he and Yanez had not returned to their homes Tuesday evening.

Ranch manager Mike Mobley, who found them floating in the tank about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, said the men were instructed Tuesday afternoon to clean the tanks, which are in a lemon grove.

Cleaning the fertilizer tanks is normal procedure every few months, but the men were not supposed to get inside the tank for the cleanup job, Mobley said. Instead, he said, they were supposed to spray water into the tank and pump out the contents. They were not wearing protective gear because it should not have been necessary, Mobley said.

“Unfortunately, we’re learning the hard way the precautions that need to be taken,” said Mobley, a former president of the farm bureau.

The tanks contain a “compost tea” that is made of compost, gypsum, potassium sulfate and molasses, Mobley said. The fertilizer is used to stimulate growth of the ranch’s orange, lemon and avocado trees.

Cal/OSHA will probably finish its investigation in about three months, Fryer said. If officials find any safety code violations, fines could range from a few hundred dollars to $70,000.