CAL-EPA PROBING EXPLOSION : RECYCLING LOT ACCIDENT HOSPITALIZED EMPLOYEE.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

The state Environmental Protection Agency is investigating an explosion that seriously injured a worker at a Canyon Country recycling yard after learning it may have involved equipment from the old Whittaker-Bermite munitions factory, officials said Wednesday.

After receiving a tip, the agency has found that the employee, who was separating metals using an acetylene torch when injured July 10 at Cal-Coast Recycling, apparently was working on equipment taken from materials trucked from the plant, said Pete Dufour, an EPA spokesman.

``We are trying to gather as much information as we can to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again. We are doing as much, as fast as we can,'' Dufour said. ``At this point it appears the material was from Whittaker-Bermite but we can't absolutely say for sure.''

Alejandro Garcia, 24, of Pacoima suffered serious burns and puncture wounds while separating a steel piece from some aluminum, and has spent weeks recuperating at the Sherman Oaks Burn Center.

A variety of munitions and other explosives were manufactured at the plant off Soledad Canyon Road, before Simi Valley-based Whittaker Corp., an aerospace and telecommunications giant, closed it in 1977.

Since then the site has been cleared of a factory and other buildings, and Whittaker is proposing an ambitious development of nearly 3,000 homes that has been halted by concerns over toxic contamination at the site.

Jack Cannady, a Whittaker vice president, said a corporation employee visited the recycling yard earlier this week, and indeed found equipment that had been shipped there from 1985 to 1987 when the site was being cleared.

Cannady said, however, that he was told that it was not yet clear that the particular piece of equipment involved in the accident came from that pile - and added he strongly doubted any old munitions were involved.

``What we sold to them was old motors, fans, pumps that used to run the air-conditioning system,'' he said. ``It was the equipment used in the building more than anything else.''

He said any equipment used in the production of munitions went through a cleaning process. Cannady could not immediately say what became of it.

Jill Klajic, a Santa Clarita city councilwoman and general manager of Cal-Coast, agreed that it was not yet clear if the particular piece of equipment came from about a ton of Bermite material still at the yard.

``It is suspected it was old Bermite material, but it's really speculation at this point,'' she said.

Nevertheless, Klajic said she wanted all of the old Bermite material taken from the yard, and workers have been prohibited from touching it.

The material, however, may stay there for some time. It has been roped off by the state EPA for further inspection.

State EPA inspectors plan to thoroughly investigate the materials, including tracking down all paperwork and documents. Dufour said the agency's investigation began less than a week ago.

``We plan to talk to all the agencies involved. We are going to interview all the individuals involved. At this point we do not believe there is any immediate danger with the equipment,'' Dufour said.

Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station and Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the scene of the explosion.

Cal-OSHA, which regulates worker safety, later began its own investigation that is not yet complete.

On Wednesday, inspectors from Cal-OSHA met with their counterparts at Cal-EPA to trade information on the accident, said Troy Swauger, an OSHA spokesman.

``We expect to wrap our investigation. Cal-EPA has their own. We are offering them some of our findings,'' Swauger said.

The disclosure of the probe comes just a week after Cal-EPA contradicted Whittaker on claims that only a majority of disposal sites at the old munitions plant were free of toxic hazards.

Munitions were produced on the site since 1934. It gained its popular name from the Bermite Powder Co., which manufactured there from 1942 until 1967 when it sold out to Whittaker.