Tuna Company, 2 Workers Charged After Employee Died In Oven

A tuna company and two workers are facing charges after an employee death at its California plant.

FOX News Radio’s Tonya J. Powers has details:

The Bumble Bee Foods company, along with two employees, is charged with violating safety regulations in the death of 62-year-old Jose Melena.

He was working on an oven in the Santa Fe Springs plant in October 2012 when co-workers loaded it with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned it on.

Temperatures reached 270 degrees during the two-hour sterilization process.

The workers could face up to three years in prison and a quarter-million dollar fine if convicted. Bumble Bee faces a maximum fine of $1.5 million.

The company was cited by the state’s occupational safety agency previously for failing to assess the danger to employees working in large ovens and fined it $74,000.

Tonya J. Powers, FOX News Radio.