Nevada Regulators Urge Steel Fine for Explosion

Safety regulators urged the state to uphold a $144,000 fine handed down earlier this week for an aerosol can recycling plant where an explosion killed one worker and injured four, saying the owner made "conscious choices" that led to the tragedy.

Equipped with rubber hammers and spikes but apparently unaware of the dangers, workers were punching holes in aerosol cans when the blast blew the roof off the Depressurized Technologies International Inc. building in Minden, Nevada, in September, a state review board was told.

"You have all the products with warning labels on them not to do it, but they were manually taking a hammer, taking a can and beating it over a spike," said Capt. Terry Taylor, lead investigator for the East Fork Fire and Paramedic District in Minden.

One worker earlier told safety inspectors they were extracting the material from cans manually because it was faster than using the plant's high-tech machine designed for the job.

The review board was considering a request from DTI owner Walter Gonzalez to cut by half or more the fine imposed in November by the Nevada Division of Industrial Relations' Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Section - the state counterpart of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

His lawyer, Noel Manoukian, a former Nevada Supreme Court Justice, said some of the charges relating to an alleged unsafe workplace should be dropped from the "willful" category to "serious," which would reduce the fine to $63,000.

Manoukian said state investigators have minimized the role in the accident the workers played, including removing a "safety" hood on the ventilation system.

"The investigators seemed to go out of their way to ignore the egregious employee conduct. ... We feel there was a conscious, or even an unconscious, intention to avoid any suggestion of employee misconduct," he said.

He also suggested the fine was excessive compared with a $200,000 settlement with Sierra Chemicals in a blast near Mustang that killed four and injured six four years ago.

Taylor told the panel the explosion - which blew several windows 20 feet into the parking lot - most likely occurred because an inadequate ventilation system failed to remove propane and butane-related gases that escaped in the process of puncturing the cans.

The gases most likely were ignited by a spark caused a forklift.

John Wiles, lead attorney for the state safety agency, said owner Walter Gonzalez "made several conscious choices that jeopardized and ultimately resulted in serious bodily injury and death to his employees.

"He is a sophisticated, educated individual who knows the product warnings and understands the properties in the canisters," he said.

"He failed to test and evaluate a process he knew was dangerous."

John Moldestad, a safety and risk control consultant from San Carlos, Calif., testifying on behalf of DTI, said the state investigation was "incomplete, inadequate and erroneous." He said the accident never would have happened if the exhaust hood had been left in place.

"This was actually a pretty good design and it worked," he said.

The hearing was continued to May 15-16.

In addition to the workplace fines, Gonzalez has been charged by Douglas County and the Nevada Attorney General with two felonies and seven misdemeanors. A hearing is scheduled in Douglas County on April 17. Associated Press