Tuna company charged after employee is cooked to death in industrial oven

A tuna processing plant in Los Angeles has been charged with violating American safety regulations after a worker was accidentally cooked to death in an industrial oven.

Jose Melena had been repairing a 35ft pressure cooker at the Bumble Bee Foods factory in Santa Fe Springs before dawn on 11 October 2012, when he died.

A colleague, who assumed Melena, 62, was in the loo, filled the oven with six tons of tuna and turned it on without looking inside. He died after experiencing temperatures up to 132°C, and his body was only found when the cooker was opened two hours later.

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

Rodriguez, 63, and Florez, 42, could face up to three years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 (£164,000) if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said. Bumble Bee Foods faces a maximum fine of $1.5 million (£980,000).

The firm has appealed the charges, and said it had improved its safety program after the tragedy.

"We remain devastated by the loss of our colleague Jose Melena in the tragic accident," it said.