Oxnard Man Dies, 2 Hurt in Tool Plant Explosion

VENTURA —  A 45-year-old man was killed and two other employees were injured in an explosion Saturday morning at a local tool manufacturing plant.

Oxnard resident Daniel “Craig” Boswell was killed instantly when a test that used a 12-foot pipe malfunctioned about 9:20 a.m., shooting the pipe out of a container, authorities said. Boswell was standing several feet from the testing area when he was struck in the upper chest by the flying pipe. The impact knocked him across the courtyard.

The names of the two injured employees were not released. One was taken to Ventura County Medical Center and the other to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

The three were doing routine testing at Baker Oil Tools on Fleet Avenue in an industrial section of town. At least four other employees were present at the time of the accident.

James Baroni, a Ventura County coroner, said a test that used a compression tube--a piston inside another tube--malfunctioned, sending the two pieces flying across a courtyard.

“They had [the compression tube], which is like what is used in oil drilling, hooked up in a vise and they were testing it with pressurized gas and then the thing exploded,” he said.

The testing was being done inside a garage, but the three men were standing outside when the accident occurred. Part of the tube flew out of the building, struck Boswell and then impaled a tree across the yard. The other side of the unit became embedded in a brick wall inside the garage.

“The company will have to determine whether the tool was faulty,” Baroni said.

Baroni said Boswell was the shop supervisor, with 12 to 15 years’ experience.

“This was a catastrophic failure, but at this point we don’t know if it was mechanical or human failure. The sling could have over-pressurized,” said Sgt. Bob Valez of the Ventura Police Department.

Baker Oil Tools is a subsidiary of Texas-based Baker Hughes.

Joseph Rodriguez said he was working at a water softening company across the street when he heard an explosion.

“I was working on my truck and it sounded like a loud tire explosion, a really sharp boom,” he said.

He said he looked around for smoke or fire and, seeing none, ran across the street, where he saw three men badly injured, including Boswell, who was lying face down.

Industrial deaths are uncommon in Ventura County, Baroni said.

“I haven’t had an explosion that caused death since the Rocketdyne explosion in ‘94,” he said. Two workers in the east county were killed in that accident.

Some family members of employees learned of the accident and drove to the company to check the safety of their relatives.