Current Events > TIL about a person who was baked in a 270-degree oven with tuna for two hours

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is how you know there's no god.

https://news.sky.com/story/6m-payout-over-worker-cooked-alive-in-tuna-oven-10349521

$6m Payout Over Worker Cooked Alive In Tuna Oven

Jose Melena was cooked alive after a co-worker loaded six tons of canned tuna into an oven he had stepped inside.

By Sky News US Team

Thursday 13 August 2015 12:40, UK

A California food company has agreed to pay $6m (3.8m) to settle criminal charges after a worker became trapped inside an industrial oven and was cooked with tons of tuna.

Jose Melena died in 2012 in a 270-degree oven at Bumble Bee Foods's plant in Santa Fe Springs after a co-worker mistakenly believed he had gone to the bathroom and loaded six tons of canned tuna into the oven he had stepped inside.

The payout is the largest in a California workplace-violation death and is four times greater than the maximum fines the company faced.

Hoon Chun, Deputy District Attorney, said: "This is the worst circumstances of death I have ever, ever witnessed.

"I think any person would prefer to be - if they had to die some way - would prefer to be shot or stabbed than to be slowly cooked in an oven."

Bumble Bee did not have safety procedures that would have turned the equipment off when an employee was inside, or provide an escape route or a spotter to keep watch, Mr Hoon said.

The firm, along with plant operations director Angel Rodriguez and former safety manager Saul Florez were each charged with three counts of violating Occupational Safety & Health Administration rules.

Bumble Bee agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanour of having willfully failed to provide an effective safety programme. It must introduce safety measures including spending $3m (1.9m) to upgrade ovens so workers cannot be trapped inside.

Florez, 42, was sentenced to three years of probation and will face fines and penalties of around $19,000 (12,000) after pleading guilty to a felony count of violating a workplace safety rule.

Rodriguez, 63, will plead guilty to a misdemeanour and will pay around $11,000 (7,000) after he completes 320 hours of community service.

Both men had faced up to three years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 (160,000). The company faced fines of up to $1.5m (960,000).

Mr Melena's family will receive $1.5m as part of the settlement.

In a statement, his family said: "Certainly, nothing will bring back our dad, and our mom will not have her husband back, but much can be done to ensure this terrible accident does not happen again."

The 62-year-old had been loading pallets of canned tuna into 35ft-long ovens on 11 October, 2012.

When a supervisor noticed he was missing, an announcement was made on the intercom and employees searched for him at the plant, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report.

His body was found two hours later after the cooker was turned off and opened.

In a statement, Bumble Bee Foods said: "We will never forget the unfathomable loss of our colleague Jose Melena and we are committed to ensuring that employee safety remains a top priority at all our facilities."

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Oh, that's terrible and gruesome.

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I remember that. It fucked with my head for years, still does

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https://youtu.be/63nMcrwporQ
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I remember that story and I still feel bad. Awful way to die.

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holy shit that must've been painful af

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AndrewCuomo posted...

https://youtu.be/63nMcrwporQ

That was not what I was expecting...

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slk_23 posted...

This is how you know there's no god.

It's stories like this that make me revile at hippies and airy fairy ideas such as the universe is "love"

Well, this and stories of children being kept as prisoners in their room for several years

slk_23 posted...

When a supervisor noticed he was missing, an announcement was made on the intercom and employees searched for him at the plant, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report.

So they could have saved him, but didn't.

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Frosted_Midna posted...

I remember that story and I still feel bad. Awful way to die.

Same.

Ps. This is one of the main reasons why I try to carry a pocket knife while I'm working/driving or just out in the wild.

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How in the world do you go through all the steps involved in designing, building, and installing ovens large enough that they require walking into and never think "you know, maybe we want to put some kind of emergency shut off in there..."

The idea of a walk in oven that you can't open from the inside is baffling to me

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modena posted...

Same.

Ps. This is one of the main reasons why I try to carry a pocket knife while I'm working/driving or just out in the wild.

I don't think that would've helped much in this situation unfortunately

MC_BatCommander posted...

The idea of a walk in oven that you can't open from the inside is baffling to me

No shit. They better have installed some safety system after that...

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indica posted...

I don't think that would've helped much in this situation unfortunately

He probably meant suicide.

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indica posted...

I don't think that would've helped much in this situation unfortunately

I assume he means to trade the slow, painful death for a quick one.

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They wear earplugs because the factory noises are so loud inside, if you wondering why he just didn't yell for anyone to notice the yells.

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The punishments they were facing (and they didn't even get the full pubishments) were too low. Wtf

3 years in prison for cooking a man alive?

I don't care if it was an accident, should be at least 10 years. That was horrific negligence

I remember this story...from 1,000 ways to die...

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Dragon239 posted...

He probably meant suicide.

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

I assume he means to trade the slow, painful death for a quick one.

Damn, I could see that. Could you imagine how hard it would be to actually kill yourself though?

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MC_BatCommander posted...

The idea of a walk in oven that you can't open from the inside is baffling to me

This. How in the flying fuck, in 2015, does this type of accident happen. Why are people manually walking into giant ovens? Why do giant ovens without inside safety release operations exist?

Mind boggling. Bumblebee should've been put out of business for that.

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indica posted...

I remember that. It fucked with my head for years, still does

Cool and here you are in this topic adding to your trauma. It's so disappointing that people don't take better care of their mental health.

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MC_BatCommander posted...

The idea of a walk in oven that you can't open from the inside is baffling to me

Same thing for feezers, I mean, why? Van trucks are another as well. If somebody closed the door on you and locked them shut without a phone or nobody within hearing ranged you're essentially fucked.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

Cool and here you are in this topic adding to your trauma. It's so disappointing that people don't take better care of their mental health.

What the fuck is your problem?

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AzurexNightmare posted...

Cool and here you are in this topic adding to your trauma. It's so disappointing that people don't take better care of their mental health.

Yeah if this is your first response you have zero business talking about other people's mental health.

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