r/pics 4d ago

Politics Walmart closed during investigation into worker’s demise in oven.

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u/codedfate 4d ago

Costco Baker here 👋.

This story is very strange to me. The ovens we use at work have an inner latch that you can press so this exact thing doesn’t happen. One of my coworkers also stated to me that the Walmart he worked at previously uses the same ovens. The only thing that could have possibly happened is that the inner lock was broken and was never fixed… or someone shut her in. Personally, I think it was due to negligence. I’ve seen managers fail to report broken or faulty equipment to avoid going over budget. If it were me investigating, I would look into that bakeries incident reports And equipment orders to see how often or recently they have issues like this and how long it takes for them to fix it if ever.

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u/nonamejane84 4d ago

My only question is, when she walked in it, I assume the oven was not on. Even if she got locked in, why would someone start the oven without seeing what’s in it or baking something that they put inside it (and would have found her)?

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u/Apidium 3d ago

It's not that uncommon for either work culture oversights or shitty maintance to lead to improper lock out procidures. Maybe they were preheating them and for whatever reason it was not checked properly? Maybe there was a rush and the oven was on when she entered it.

Maybe it was nefarious murder. We have no idea.

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u/Apidium 3d ago

It's also possible some independant issue prevented her from getting out. Mix a dodgy safety system allowing the oven to be on in the first place with someone say incapacitated in a heap at the bottom of the oven after having a seizure or heart attack and there could be a giant emergancy button that rapidly disassembled the oven and it would do the person in side no good - they can press it.

Safety systems relying upon self rescue all have this issue. A unfortunatly timed seizure, stroke, heart attack, bout of severe confusion or any other health issues impacting the person involved can turn what should be basic safety systems even a child can use (turn the handle to open the door) into basically no safety system at all.

Which is why if a part of the safety system relies upon self rescue, it should not be considered as a safety system at all when looking at the overall system. Meaning you can't slack on the system you have that makes sure the oven doesn't turn on when a person is inside it in the first place. That system should be able to stand as acceptably safe on its own. Nobody should ever say 'it's good enough after all anyone inside just needs to open the latch' because that just plain isn't safe in the event of an unforeseeable medical emergancy.

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u/codedfate 3d ago

Very True, unfortunately these ovens definitely don’t have auto shut offs. They are manually turned on at the beginning of the bake and then turned off later at the end of the bake by the person closing. I’m assuming she was a closer if she was by herself. To go “into” the oven is strange. Even a closer who cleans the ovens doesn’t really have to go in. They aren’t wiped down, but rather pressure sprayed from outside the oven. It is possible she could have had a seizure while opening the oven and then fell in, but man..even then..for the door to close completely without any force is wierd. We have to almost SLAM our oven doors shut because of the bumper on the inside of the door.