Cal-OSHA investigating third possible farm laborer heat death

Cal-OSHA, California's Occupational Safety and Health agency, is investigating the Wednesday death of a farm laborer in Kern County Wednesday as another possible heat-related fatality on the job.

Abdon Felix, 42, was working in extreme heat -- as high as 108 degrees -- loading harvested table grapes onto a truck in a vineyard in the Arvin area. He and a co-worker set out to transport the grapes to Delano to put them in cold storage, according to the Kern County Coroner's office. Garcia became ill in the truck on Highway 99 just north of Bakersfield, and a co-worker called 911 and summoned help. Emergency workers arrived at about 2:50 p.m. and found that Garcia was not breathing.

He was taken to Delano Regional Medical Center, where staff said Garcia's core body temperature measured 108 degrees, said Kern County Supervising Deputy Coroner John Van Rensselaer. Garcia died shortly after 4 p.m.

Garcia was working for Sunview Vineyards, which is based in Arvin, Van Rensselaer said. No one answered the phone at the company Thursday.

It could take weeks for final results from an autopsy, Van Rensselaer said. He confirmed that the initial suspected cause of Garcia's death is heat-related and that his core body temperature is a "very significant" factor in the investigation.

Garcia's death could be the third death of a California farm laborer working in extreme heat since May. A 27-year-old oil field worker, Julius Askew, died May 16 of heat stroke he suffered while working outside in the Bakersfield area, Van Rensselaer said.

San Joaquin County farmworker Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, 17, also died on May 16 after collapsing from heat exposure two days earlier while pruning grape vines east of Stockton. Cal-OSHA is investigating the circumstances of her death. The agency is also looking into the June 20 death of a 64-year-old man who collapsed in a field in Santa Maria, in Santa Barbara County.

The United Farm Workers Union said Jose Macarena Hernandez was harvesting squash in the Santa Maria field in heat as high as 110 degrees.

Dean Fryer, a spokesman for Cal-OSHA, said some witnesses told investigators that Hernandez was visiting the field, not working.

Fryer said Cal-OSHA has already begun to the investigate Garcia's death.

Vicki Adame, a spokeswoman for the UFW, said that Garcia was the father of three children. His wife and children live in Mexico's Zacatecas state. A brother who lives in Sam Bernardino has arrived in Kern County and other family members live in the Delano area, Adame said.

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