Man dies while working on Oxnard farm during heat wave

OXNARD, Calif. (KABC) -- A family is mourning the death of a 43-year-old man who died while working on a farm in Oxnard during the late-summer heat wave.

The family of Oscar Pimentel says he died from excessive heat, but his employer does not believe that. His death is under investigation.

Pimentel was a husband and father to two daughters. His brother described him as a caring and loving person.

His family says he died on Sept. 7, when most of Southern California sweated through a stretch of blistering heat.

His wife Griselda, a fieldworker on another farm, believes he died from heat-related illness, a condition that kills more than 1,200 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The nonprofit group, Friends of Fieldworkers, is advocating for Pimentel's family.

"Oscar had complained to his wife about feeling like he was 'suffocating from the heat' when he was working on the fields," the group wrote. "Griselda informed him that she was receiving additional heat breaks at the farm she was working at."

"The growers at her farm had stopped them from working that day at 10 in the morning. Unfortunately, for Oscar and the farm where he was, workers were still working until after the afternoon," said Martita Martinez-Bravo, executive director of Friends of Fieldworkers. "So I think there are some discrepancies there."

The county medical examiner has yet to determine the cause of Pimentel's death.

According to meteorologists, the high temperature in Oxnard on Sept. 7 hit 81 degrees, and there was no extreme heat warning that day.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration has standards for heat-illness prevention when working outdoors. It requires employers to provide shade when temps exceed 80 degrees, and even when they don't, employees should also be allowed and encouraged to take rest breaks in the shade.

The attorney representing Del Sol Harvesting, Pimentel's employer, says Cal/OSHA's heat stress guidance was provided to farming members in a newsletter about the heat wave on Sept. 6, the day before Pimentel died.

Del Sol Harvesting's attorney Rob Roy told Eyewitness News that the company says Pimentel was not doing strenuous work in the fields and believes other health issues may have led to his death.

A GoFundMe has been set up to support Pimentel's family.

Cal/OSHA is investigating Del Sol Harvesting. It could take up to six months to complete.

Pimentel was an employee there for eight years.