A warehouse operator’s decision to seal exit doors and block emergency exit routes in order to gain additional storage space for hazardous materials “placed the workers in great jeopardy," said OSHA’s Galen Lemke, who pointed out that the blocked exits could have devastating results in the event of an ammonia leak from piping located throughout the facility.
That and other hazards at a refrigerated food warehouse in Honolulu occupied by Unicold Corp. and nine tenants earned the company a total of $251,330 in proposed fines. Investigations were conducted by OSHA (under the agency's National Emphasis Program for facilities with highly hazardous chemicals) as well as Hawaii's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations' Occupational Safety and Health Division.