California Officials Probe Another Farmworker Death

California workplace safety officials are investigating the death of a second farmworker as possibly heat-related.

The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health said on Monday that a 37-year-old farmworker was checking irrigation equipment in a lemon orchard near the community of Richgrove, east of Delano in Tulare County, on Friday afternoon when he collapsed.

Officials said the temperature at the time of his death was over 100 degrees.

The worker, identified by the United Farmworkers of America as Juan Ochoa, was employed by Visalia-based Etchegaray Farms LLC.

Cal-OSHA is also investigating the possible heat-related death last Tuesday of a 30-year-old farmworker who had been working at a watermelon field southwest of Fresno.

State officials say coroners are still trying to determine the causes of death.