Felony Counts Filed in Toxic Sun Valley Fire That Injured 56

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office filed criminal charges Friday against the owner of a Sun Valley chemical company that burned last April, hospitalizing 56 people who inhaled fumes and requiring two cleanups by federal and state agencies.

A warrant was issued in San Fernando Municipal Court for the arrest of Marianne Pratter, 52, owner of Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co., a chemical distribution firm that went out of business after the fire on April 13, 1985.

Pratter is charged with two felony counts of unlawful disposal of hazardous wastes and three misdemeanor counts of maintaining a public nuisance, unlawful storage of hazardous wastes and failure to properly store a radioactive substance, said Marcia W. Strickland, deputy district attorney.

If convicted of all the charges, Pratter could be sentenced to a maximum of three years and eight months in prison and fined more than $150,000, Strickland said.

Hazardous Wastes on Site

The charges filed Friday are related to Pratter’s failure to remove hazardous wastes after the fire, said Strickland, a member of the district attorney’s environmental crimes division.

Strickland said there appeared to be no section of the California Health and Safety Code under which Pratter could be charged for injuries suffered by firefighters, police officers and a newspaper photographer at the fire.

Last month, 20 police officers and a newspaper photographer who claim they were injured in the fire filed an $18-million lawsuit against Pratter.

Meanwhile, Pratter has opened a new chemical business in the city of Orange, Strickland said. She said the business, called Advent Laboratories, has been inspected by local fire officials who found no hazardous chemicals in storage.

In a business license on record with the City of Orange, Advent Laboratories is registered to Marianne Bunzel. Strickland said Pratter is using the name Bunzel, which may be her maiden name. The license describes the firm as a commercial testing laboratory. Strickland believes that Pratter is buying and selling chemicals by telephone.

Year-Long Investigation

Pratter did not return a call placed to Advent Laboratories on Friday. Her attorney, Michael Plotkin, did not return a phone call from The Times.

The charges filed Friday followed a yearlong investigation by Los Angeles police and the Los Angeles County Health Services Department, Strickland said.

Strickland said one felony charge covers the time from the fire until the last toxic chemicals were removed by a private firm in December.

During that time, Strickland said, Pratter allowed toxic, flammable and radioactive material to remain on the site at 9068 De Garmo Ave. She said a 400-page report prepared by the Health Services Department identifies those chemicals as a two-ton cylinder of chlorine trifluoride, a rocket fuel oxidizer; several cylinders of methyl lithium, a reactive material; a barrel containing 100% arsenic and several materials that ignite at low temperatures.

The second felony charge was for an incident Nov. 26 when several containers left on the property began to discharge fumes, causing the hospitalization of two men who were repairing the building, Strickland said.

The misdemeanor charges repeat the same allegations with the added charge of failing to secure a radioactive substance, Strickland said.

Radioactive Materials

Strickland said low-level uranium and thorium were left on the property. She said radioactive traces were also detected in fumes around the site and in the ground.

The fire at Pratter’s firm gave impetus to the adoption last year of a city ordinance that requires more than 56,000 businesses to register toxic chemicals. It also prompted the Los Angeles City Fire Department to re-evaluate its procedures for fighting chemical fires.

After the fire, the federal Environmental Protection Agency assumed control of a two-week, $140,000 cleanup of the property. Many containers of hazardous material were left on the property when the agency determined that they could be salvaged by the owner.

County health officials said two notices were sent to Pratter within a month of the fire telling her the materials had to be removed.

Second Cleanup Ordered

Some materials were removed, but other drums and glass containers allegedly were left in a shed.

Meanwhile, the building’s owner, Juan Company of Woodland Hills, began rebuilding the structure.

After two of Company’s workmen were overcome by fumes in November, the Toxic Substances Control division of the state Department of Health Services told a Long Beach hazardous-waste disposal firm to clean up the site.

That cleanup was completed in December, Strickland said.

In New Jersey, where she owned another company called Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co., Pratter pleaded guilty in 1984 to charges of reckless storage of hazardous materials and creating a risk of widespread injury, New Jersey officials said. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and five months of community service, and fined $15,000, officials said.