OSHA Cites Firm After Worker’s Fatal Fall

State job-safety inspectors have cited the owner of a small surveying firm following the death of an employee who fell from the roof of a Burbank office building Oct. 3.

Julio C. Ventura, 23, plunged from the roof of the eight-story Buena Vista Plaza Building while trying to move a 900-pound electrical component that was obstructing the view of a surveying instrument. Ventura died at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank of internal injuries.

Officials of Cal-OSHA, the state job-safety agency, fined Ventura’s employer, Clifford M. Lewis Surveyor Inc. of Arcadia, $400.

Cal-OSHA inspectors said Lewis failed to check for worker hazards on the roof before surveying and required Ventura to work in an unsafe place.

According to a Cal-OSHA report, Ventura and Lewis tried to shift the heavy electrical equipment as it sat on two thick boards less than three feet from the edge of the roof. Ventura tried to stop the machinery from falling but the equipment crashed over the side, taking Ventura with it, the report said.

Lewis, whose firm employs three people, said he will not appeal.