Industrial Accidents

A propane fire that threatened to trigger a major explosion was put down Tuesday by firefighters who braved the flames to reach shut-off valves for the dangerous fuel, officials said. The fire at 11:30 a.m. at JVC Corp. in the 500 block of Corporate Avenue was caused by a static electricity spark that ignited a 33-gallon liquid propane tank stacked beside a dozen other identical tanks and a 500-gallon tank, officials said.

An estimated 10,000 to 27,000 residents from several Southeast Los Angeles County communities were rousted from their beds early Saturday when smoldering chemicals at a City of Commerce plant released a toxic cloud, triggering a massive evacuation. Sixty-eight people were treated for minor injuries, mainly respiratory problems, while two others remained hospitalized in stable condition after complaining of chest pains.

Seven Department of Water and Power workers were injured--four of them critically--and power was knocked out in a six-block area when an explosion ripped through an underground electrical vault downtown at about 3:30 Friday morning. The cause of the explosion was not immediately determined, but there were no early indications of human error, according to Ken Miyoshi, assistant chief engineer for the DWP.

A 1,000-pound crane being used to help film a beer commercial toppled over, damaging a stone sundial in Peru's Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, officials said. The Intihuatana sundial is a granite block carved into the peak of the mountain where Machu Picchu lies, about 310 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. A jutting edge of the sundial was chipped off Friday when the crane fell. The commercial was being shot by U.S. ad agency J. Walter Thompson for Peruvian beer company Cervesur.

Private sector workplace injuries and illnesses in California shot up by 18,482 or 11% during the first six months of 1988, compared to the same period a year ago, according to newly compiled state statistics. The increase was disclosed at a Sacramento hearing designed to enhance the prospects of Proposition 97, the initiative that would compel Gov. George Deukmejian to restore funds for the state's worker and health safety agency.

Veteran firefighter Paul (Red) Adair on Saturday boarded the burning wreck of a North Sea oil platform where 166 men died in the world's worst oil rig disaster. He and members of his firefighting team were lowered to the smoldering hulk in a metal basket attached to a crane on a ship, where they began the dangerous task of making the damaged platform safe. Occidental Petroleum Corp.

The explosion and fire that destroyed a North Sea oil platform and claimed 166 lives brought calls Friday for improved safety standards and major revisions to the design of structures operating in the hazardous environment. At a news conference here, Occidental Petroleum Chairman Armand Hammer agreed that crew living quarters would probably have to be separated from the production area in future platforms.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Department said Thursday that it is investigating the possibility that malicious damage by timber harvesting opponents may have been responsible for a lumber mill accident in which a worker was injured when a huge saw band flew into his face after hitting a large nail embedded in a log. It was the first-known accident that could be linked to "tree-spiking," a tactic advocated by radical environmental activists to stop the logging of old-growth trees.

Two men were killed and two others injured when an industrial-sized electric water heater exploded in a Rancho Santa Margarita plastics factory. The blast at about 11:40 p.m. Thursday was of such force that it shot the water heater through the roof of the south Orange County facility. It then came crashing down inside the building. Killed were Isidro Echeverria, 34, of Oceanside and Jose Jimenez, 51, of Garden Grove.

Metal scaffolding being moved by construction workers toppled and hit a power line, electrocuting two workers and injuring five others, authorities said. The accident Friday at the Argent Square Depot shopping center occurred as the workers were pushing the scaffolding to make way for other construction equipment.