A mysterious metal that exploded at a West Orlando recycling plant came from Lockheed Martin’s secure defense manufacturing plant, according to a new lawsuit.
Vincent Maynard, an employee at Brothers Scrap Metal, suffered severe burns to his arms and hands in an explosion on Dec. 1, 2014.
“It appears this was not your typical piece of metal,” said Maynard’s attorney, J. Scott Murphy. “It appears to have been a high-grade mixture of metals that was used in a military government operation.”
The explosion was covered by several local media outlets, when the president of Brothers, Michael Leigh, said the company had received three bins of the mystery metal.
“Every piece that we tested, we couldn’t find anything wrong with it, so we don’t know exactly what happened," Leigh said at the time.
A subsequent inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, dated the next day, found violations at the plant, according to online records.
Maynard allegedly tried to identify the metal with a scanner, but it failed to read the makeup of the material. Because some metals have a coating on them, he took it to a grinder to expose part of the inside. That’s when the explosion happened, according to Leigh and the lawsuit.
A paper that came with the shipment identified the source as Lockheed Martin, according to Murphy. He said the paper, an official Material Safety Data Sheet, indicated the substance was a “reactive metal matrix composite” but did not explain the exact mix of metals included.
Brothers Scrap Metal claims to have done business with Lockheed for years, but Murphy said Lockheed’s first response to him was to deny that the defense contractor (NYSE: LMT) even knew of a company called Brothers.
Meanwhile the metal that Maynard was working on burned up completely in the fire, the lawsuit says.
Maynard has recovered but suffers from severe scar tissue on his arms and hands, Murphy said, which restricts his movements and abilities.
It’s not the first time that explosions have occurred at metal processing facilities, but the circumstances surrounding the Brothers incident are somewhat unique.
For example, in 2010, federal and local authorities investigated a fatal explosion at AL Solutions metal recycling facility in New Cumberland, West Virginia. Three employees died there.
An OSHA report on the AL Solutions tragedy said accumulated metal shavings and dust from explosive titanium and zirconium dust were ignited.
The Maynard lawsuit alleges that Lockheed had a duty to warn Brothers if there was a significant explosion risk from the metal that Brothers was picking up.
Lockheed employs about 7,000 people in the Orlando area at two locations. The largest is the Missiles and First Control plant on Sand Lake Road in South Orlando.
A spokesman for Lockheed Martin did not immediately provide a response to the allegations.
Contact me with a business news tip at pbrinkmann@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter is @PaulBrinkmann
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