Emergency personnel came to the rescue of a man who got his arm caught in a tortilla-making machine at a family-owned tortilleria and grocery store in Logan Heights Friday morning.
The accident happened around 10 a.m. on Aug. 16 at the Sawaya Brothers Market at 425 S 30th Street, just north of Ocean Boulevard and west of the 15 freeway.
According to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, the victim was an employee of the supermarket who slipped and fell on top of the industrial-sized tortilla-making machine when he was loading dough.
The other employees rushed to turn off the machine, but his arm had been caught in the press. It took firefighters 45 minutes to disassemble the machine enough to free him. The acting shift commander on the scene, San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Josh Slatinsky said the victim’s arm was lodged in the machine up to his shoulder.
An ambulance crew took the employee to the hospital with part of the machine still attached to him. The owners of the supermarket have closed the market for the rest of the day.
CalOSHA will be investigating the incident.
–City News Service contributed to this report
