WASHINGTON — A judge sentenced Tampa Electric Company, or TECO, to a $500,000 fine and three years of probation following the June 2017 explosion at its Big Bend Power Station electrical plant that killed five workers.
The Department of Justice announced Friday that the fine is the maximum penalty the company can face given its failure to follow an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety standard that results in the death of at least one employee.
In addition to the fine and probation, the company must comply with a safety compliance plan.
The utility company earlier in May pleaded guilty. Earlier court documents state TECO negotiated with each of the workers' families and privately settled with them in civil court. It also agreed to pay a $500,000 fine, the Associated Press reported.
Five contractors and a TECO employee were at work when the explosion happened on June 29, 2017. Two people were killed in the explosion, while three others died after being taken to the hospital.
TECO's Apollo Beach plant at the time had four large, coal-fired furnaces. A byproduct of the furnaces was molten slag, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rather than shutting down the furnace, the DOJ said, the workers began to use high-pressure water "without observance of several safety-related procedures required by law."
It is a class B misdemeanor to willfully fail to follow an OHSA safety standard, the DOJ said in a release.
"TECO’s willful violation had catastrophic consequences, including five workers dead and several more injured, underlining the importance of workplace safety standards," Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. "The department takes this conduct very seriously, and accordingly pursued the maximum remedy available under the law."
Archie Collins, TECO's president and chief executive officer, provided the following statement:
"We reaffirm our commitment to hold ourselves accountable for this tragedy, and to ensure our people are safe as part of the world-class safety culture all of us at Tampa Electric are working together to build."