DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997                 TAG: 9703090204

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   31 lines

OSHA FINES BEACH FIRM AFTER 4 DIE IN ACCIDENT

The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has levied a $125,000 fine against the Virginia Beach employer of four men who drowned last September while working in a sewage holding tank at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station.

Citing seven safety violations, OSHA said Qualicon Corp. failed to provide a work environment ``free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.'' OSHA found no criminal misconduct.

The four men had begun working on the tank Sept. 5, when one was overcome by fumes while disconnecting a valve in the tank. With the valve detached, the tank partially filled with gas and sewage.

One by one, the other three men entered the tank in a bid to save their co-worker, but all were overcome by fumes, witnesses said. The actual cause of death was drowning in the several feet of water and sewage that flowed into the tank, said OSHA spokesman Tom Pope.

The Navy says Qualicon has conducted extensive in-house training on working within confined spaces since the accident. As part of the settlement, announced Wednesday, Qualicon agreed to spend $25,000 to help fund such training for other Tidewater workers over the next four years, OSHA said.

Qualicon president Carl Edwards disputed OSHA's findings and said the settlement ``was based on a mutual desire to not litigate the thing.'' KEYWORDS: DROWNINGS ACCIDENT GENERAL OSHA

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