Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

TIMET settles safety fines

CARSON CITY -- Titanium Metals Corp. has agreed to pay a $125,265 fine for numerous safety violations at its plant near Henderson, including one that contributed to a worker's death in January 1995.

TIMET decided to settle the 80-90 serious violations last week rather than go to a review board, said Danny Evans, chief administrative officer of the state Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Section.

Still pending are citations involving the death of another employee at the plant last January.

As part of the agreement, Evans said all unsafe conditions had to be fixed and a commitment made that there be further training, "because they had so many new people on board."

The state withdrew some of its citations in the settlement, he said.

The citations were the result of regular inspections and a special inquiry after the death of Iris Jones, a 56-year-old millwright at TIMET.

"They didn't use a lock-out, tag-out procedure properly," Evans said, explaining that machinery was not off while employees were working on it.

Evans said the inspection started at the time of a strike in June 1994 and ran through September 1994.

"The strike was going on and all the new people were trying to run the plant without qualified people," he said.

TIMET employs about 450 people at its plant off Lake Mead Drive in the southeast valley. It is part of the Basic Management Inc. complex of industrial plants that also includes Kerr-McGee Corp., a rocket fuel component maker, and Pioneer Chlor Alkali, a chlorine manufacturer. TIMET has been operating there since 1950.

Still to be resolved is the presence of hazardous chemicals at TIMET. Evans said it's not clear yet whether TIMET has enough chemicals to fall under hazardous process safety regulations. That will require further inspections, he said.

The pending citations involve the death of Douglas Sloan, 45, a 16-year foreman.

Evans said Sloan was lowered on a hook of a large crane into a tank that contained argon, an odorless, colorless and toxic gas.

Sloan was overcome by the gas.

Evans said the crane operator had initially refused to lower Sloan into the tank, but then a direct order was given to the operator.

Sloan was trying to retrieve a piece of equipment that had fallen into the tank.

The two citations in this case are entering a confined space without being permitted and riding a hook of a crane into the furnace pit, Evans said.

At the time, fellow workers tossed air hoses into the pit to remove the argon but it was too late to save Sloan.

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