Bumble Bee Foods, managers, charged in worker’s death
Jose Melena died inside 270 degree oven
Bumble Bee Foods and two of the company’s managers were charged with felony safety violations this week over the death of a worker who was burned alive in an industrial pressure cooker.
The charges stem from an accident on Oct. 11, 2012 in which 62-year-old Jose Melena entered a 35-foot oven at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant to effect repairs. Unaware that Melena was inside the oven, other workers loaded approximately 12,000 pounds of tuna into it, shut the door and activated the oven, which reached 270 degrees.