Worker cooked to death at California tuna plant

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. Authorities say a 62-year-old employee was cooked to death at a Southern California seafood plant for tuna maker Bumble Bee Foods.

The Whittier Daily News reports Jose Melena was found shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday at the plant in Santa Fe Springs.

Erika Monterroza is a spokeswoman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. She says it's unclear how the man ended up inside a cooking device called a "steamer machine."

The state agency has launched an investigation.

Bumble Bee Foods spokesman Pat Menke expressed condolences to Melena's family in a written statement. Menke says operations at the canning facility will be suspended until Monday.

[ToolMangler1]

There is a movie and product named for that end result, it's called 'Soylent Green'..
And someday it is coming to a store near you..

[babzc]

tuna cans are filled raw, salted water added then the top placed on the can . the can goes into steamer rooms to cook the tuna, sterilize the cans, and seal the vacuum.this is the case with canned vegetables also . the cans are filled with raw product and steamed to seal the packaging and cook the veggies.he was trapped inside with the product and anyone who has read a single stephen king novel knows how much worse this story could get...

[tbrown17]

From what the story said, the man was not processed into food, but rather scalded or burned to death in the steam. I feel sure they found and removed his body before the next step in the processing.

[animaltoo]

You are kidding, right?

[1notrub11]

Safety issue? Possibly. An accident? Probably.

However, without autopsy results (not clear from the article) and knowledge about the size of the processing vessel in question, there could be a number of explanations. Everything from a medical event and a safety protocol failure to something more sinister.

The comments below regarding government inspectors or the politicization of the issue illustrate a complete lack of knowledge regarding what inspections purport to prevent and how they are performed. At least the manufacturer has a license, unlike the commentors.

The "joking" comments regarding the foodstuff itself are just crass.

[MrsHippy]

When you run out of fish, just change the ingredients!

[rwsmith29456]

I hope they clean out the cooker. People shouldn't eat canned human. Too much mercury.

[1982-1986]

Always good to proof read so[scrouch] need to be replace with scorch .

[1982-1986]

Guidelines need to be enforcing on both Federal and State level for non-English workers for them to really understand the important of safety.

I know some of you ask way should government care about this terror[death] frying[scrouch] man who family probably came from the south of the border, well I will say that Bush daughter-in-laws roots have establish priority now since first Bush had controlled over America that started the process of cheap labor.

Condolence to the family!

[bill_k_Lopez]

You sir are an a**
Do you just assume that Mr Melena was a non-English (assume you forgot to type SPEAKER)?? Because of his surname?

Pull your head ouy, a Spanish surname doesn't always equal NON ENGLISH SOUTH OF THE BORDER.

Its also rather presumptuous of you to make the claim that workers at the Bumble Bee plant are considerd "cheap labor".

[billhardy]

The lockout/tagout safety procedure is decades old and **if used** is 100% effective in preventing injuries and deaths when repairing or maintaining dangerous machinery.

ALL machinery is required to have big-azz bilingual signs with creepy graphics to ensure all workers, even illiterates and non-English speakers, understand the dangers involved in working with machinery. Machinery is also required to have a way to lock it down in a way that ONLY the person exposed to danger can unlock it.

Takes a couple minutes to walk to the cabinet that has the tags and locks and a minute or 2 more to lock it out. Yet I have seen (and issued safety violations for that can lead to firing) employees skip this procedure time and time again.

Sometimes you can't prevent people from walking out into traffic. Any safety manager will tell you how frustrating it is trying to idiot-proof machinery, 'cuz the idiots are out there, believe me.

This is a hideous death, and it came from someone ignoring EVERYTHING that plant put into place to prevent it.

[tomanyt]

Wow. Six comments. All jokes about someones death. Pathetic.

[Goldwater64s6]

Can`t beat a fried Spam sandwich.