LOS ANGELES-
State regulators have fined Mammoth Mountain Ski Area $50,000 for several job safety violations related to the deaths of three ski patrol members earlier this year.
The patrolmen were trying to fence off a toxic volcanic vent April 6 when the snow collapsed and two of them fell in. A third ski patrol member died while trying to reach his colleagues and seven more were seriously injured due to the carbon dioxide gas spewing from the vent.
The deaths could have been prevented had Mammoth Mountain officials posted enough signs warning about the vent and followed procedures on performing rescues, the state division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a report.
The report also cited the ski resort for neglecting to train employees on ways to gauge the danger.
“If standard practices had been followed, this catastrophic event might not have occurred,” Len Welsh, acting chief for OSHA in California, said Friday.
A resort official disputed the state’s finding, saying the rescuers were not trained to go into the vent because procedures required them to wait until firefighters arrived. Faced with the mortality of their co-workers and friends, the patrollers “acted heroically,” Rusty Gregory, the resort’s chief executive officer, told The Los Angeles Times.
“Heroes sometimes do that,” Gregory said. “This has truly broken our hearts forever. This was a huge personal loss for us.”
Mammoth Mountain, 160 miles east of San Jose, is dotted with fumaroles, which release occasional puffs of foul-smelling gases.
During most of the year, the vents are harmless because the carbon dioxide fumes they emit dissipate in the air. But in winter, the volcanic gases pool and concentrate in pockets beneath the snow.
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