Tuna Company’s Ex-Safety Manager Guilty in California Worker Oven Death

A former safety manager at a Bumble Bee Foods seafood plant in California has pleaded guilty in the death of a worker who was cooked with tons of tuna.

Saul Florez was sentenced to probation and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty this week in Los Angeles Superior Court on a charge of violating a workplace safety rule that caused a death.

Jose Melena died three years ago after cooking for two hours in an oven that reached 270 degrees at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant.

Melena was trapped after a co-worker mistakenly believed he was in the bathroom and filled a pressure cooker with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna.

Related:

• Bumble Bee, 2 Managers Charged in Oven Death of California Worker
• Southern California Worker Dies in Tuna Plant Oven