BOISE (KTVB) – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found that a Caldwell company failed to protect its employees from numerous forklift hazards after one of its workers died last summer.

The agency began an investigation into the operations at Superior Steel Products Inc. after 30-year-old Ernesto Paramo died on the job on Aug. 4, 2014. Paramo, who worked a welder, was in an unsecured basket raised on a forklift about nine feet off the floor when the basket fell off onto the concrete floor below.

Investigators also discovered confined space, flammable liquid and respiratory hazards in the workplace. OSHA has proposed fines of $38,780 for these violations.

"We send our condolences to the family and friends of Ernesto Paramo. They lost someone they loved because Superior Steel Products did not ensure basic safety procedures for dangerous heavy equipment," said Galen Blanton, acting OSHA regional administrator in Seattle.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in the past year, nearly one-in-four workplace fatalities in Idaho were the result of improper forklift use.

Superior Steel Products is a manufacturer of steel and aluminum storage tanks, such as crude oil tankers, aviation fuel storage, fuel transportation tanks, fertilizer storage tanks and chemical transportation tanks.

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