Bumble Bee seafood worker cooked to death in oven; state probes death

Work is expected to resume Monday at a Bumble Bee seafood processing plant in Santa Fe Springs where a worke rwas apparently cooked to death in an industrial oven last week.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the death.

Authorities initially reported that there was some sort of “industrial accident” at the plant in the 13100 block of Arctic Circle about 7 a.m. Thursday, according to Santa Fe Springs Fire Department Division Chief Michael Crook.

Crook said paramedics rushed to the plant and pronounced the man dead as soon as they arrived. No one else was injured.

Bumble Bee Foods executives have identified the worker as Jose Melena, 62. He'd worked there for six  years.

“The entire Bumble Bee Foods family is saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Melena family,” Pat Menke, the company’s vice president of human resources, said in a statement.

But identifying the man is proving a tougher job for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, where Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said this weekend that the agency had not yet positively identified the worker who died at the seafood plant because of intense damage to his body. The man died as a result of being “trapped in a pressure cooker,” MacWillie said.

Bumble Bee Foods quickly halted work at the plant and in a statement said “operations … have been suspended to allow for a thorough investigation.” The company said this weekend that operations would resume Monday.
ALSO:

Car chase kills pedestrian in Canoga Park

'Blessing of the waves' merges spirituality and surfboards

Executive's wife missing; evidence of violent struggle found at home

-- Ari Bloomekatz