State Probing Accident in Which Worker Died

State safety officials launched an investigation Tuesday into an accident that claimed the life of a worker buried under tons of refuse at an Anaheim recycling yard.

Celestino Mendoza, 55, a supervisor at the plant, disappeared around 7:50 p.m. Monday. He was working in the green-waste processing area of the five-acre recycling yard, where workers sort giant piles of lawn clippings, tree branches and other yard waste collected from homes.

Co-workers searched unsuccessfully for Mendoza, then called 911 around 8:30 p.m. Fifty Anaheim firefighters and two search dogs waded through the decaying rubbish for two hours. They found Mendoza shortly before 10:30 p.m. and pronounced him dead at the scene.

“It was a tragedy, and our thoughts go out to the family, but accidents happen,” said Anaheim Fire Department division chief Jerry Austin.

The plant is run by Taormina Industries, one of Orange County’s largest waste management companies. Plant officials said they do not know how Mendoza came to be buried under the trash, and coroner’s investigators will not determine a cause of death until they complete further tests.

At the family’s modest home in Anaheim, Mendoza’s 18-year-old son, Mario, wondered aloud how his father died. His mother, who had been married to Mendoza for 38 years, cried softly beside him.

“[My father] was a happy person, a hard-working man who told us to always hold up our heads, no matter what happened,” Mario Mendoza said. The father of two had immigrated from Mexico to California about 12 years ago. He had been a popular night-shift employee for the past five years and received the company’s Worker of the Year award, his son said.

“He loved his job,” Mario Mendoza said.

Investigators from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the site of the accident Tuesday morning, interviewing employees and company officials.

Jim Brown, Anaheim manager for Cal/OSHA, said the investigation could take as long as six months. “We’ve still got some people we need to talk to,” Brown said. “Typically, as in this case, we know very little at the start of things.”

Cal/OSHA has cited Taormina Industries for several safety violations since 1994, including two serious violations after a 55-year-old worker was hospitalized with multiple fractures sustained in a fall, records show.

The company also was cited for failing to meet state reporting requirements in 1994 when a Taormina employee suffered broken ribs and lacerations when a platform was knocked over by a truck, according to records.

Brown declined to characterize the company’s overall safety record or compare it to other firms, citing vast differences between companies.

Dan Bruno, a spokesman for Teamsters Local 396, which represents refuse haulers that use the recycling yard, said the facility has a reputation of being “crowded” at times, while employees outside the plant said that the sorting process is sometimes hectic and the work can be dangerous.

“It’s pretty busy in there,” said Severo Guzman, a worker at the plant.