Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department cited for deadly shooting range explosion

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for safety violations that contributed to an explosion that killed one deputy and seriously injured another.

This happened at a mobile shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic on October 10, 2023. A total of four people were injured. Two deputies were rushed to the hospital critical but stable condition. The other two were slightly injured.

Six months after the explosion, one of the deputies, Alfredo “Freddy” Floresdied from the injuries he suffered that day.

At the time of the incident, a deputy chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department said “all internal contents” of the range contributed to the explosion and subsequent fire. Sheriff Robert Luna said his investigators will find out what started the inferno.

“We don't want this to happen again, so we need to know why it happened and get to the bottom of it so we can prevent it from happening again,” Sheriff Luna said.

In a report from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, inspectors presented five workplace citations related to the shooting range and recommended fines of $301,000.

Cal/OSHA issued the first two citations for failing to maintain adequate records of inspections and for lacking an effective procedure for identifying workplace hazards, including the accumulation of combustible propellant in the workplace. inside an indoor shooting range.

In the third citation, inspectors claimed the sheriff's department was aware of unsafe working conditions before the explosion but failed to “take sufficient measures to prevent the reoccurrence of fires at its mobile shooting ranges interiors,” according to the Cal/OSHA report. .

The regulatory agency said the latter two violations directly led to the explosion. In the report, inspectors said the deputies failed to follow the manufacturer's recommendations to “perform daily, weekly, monthly and semi-annual preventive maintenance” on the range. Additionally, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department allowed combustible materials to accumulate throughout the facility, including on floors, ledges, beams, equipment and machinery.

The report also described potential dangers at a similar facility at the Central Men's Jail in downtown Los Angeles, including combustible foam. The inspector also said the department hijacked a HEPA vacuum to collect potentially explosive dust and debris in the range.

“In the future, dust collectors will be located outside or in an isolated room and cannot be used inside the shooting range,” the inspector wrote. “In addition, any dust collection system must have adequate explosion vents. This includes the general dust collection system located under the trailer.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department appealed the citations, according to Cal/OSHA.

“We are working with the County Council to assess OSHA violations, but the safety of our personnel is paramount and our primary concern. The investigation into the shooting range fire is currently ongoing,” wrote l law enforcement agency in a statement.

Following the Oct. 10 fire, the department closed all of its mobile shooting ranges.

“We currently use other law enforcement shooting ranges and our Wayside outdoor shooting range for firearms qualifications,” the department said.