A federal appellate court affirmed citations issued against a fireworks importer and distributor involving a fatal fire.

Pittsburg, Kansas-based Jake’s Fireworks Inc. assigned two employees to clean out its old facility in August 2014 when a fire broke out, injuring one employee and killing the other, according to the decision in Jake’s Fireworks Inc. v. R. Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Labor issued Thursday by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for improperly storing and handling explosives, improperly using a liquid propane forklift around combustible dust and a lack of a written hazard communication program — an OSHA requirement for employers to document the hazardous materials on the worksite.

In June 2017, an administrative law judge affirmed the citations but reduced the penalties to $20,000 from the $24,000 proposed by OSHA. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission declined to review, which finalized the judge’s decision. The company then filed a petition with the 10th Circuit contesting the violations, which the appellate court denied.

The appellate court rejected Jake’s Fireworks’ argument that the standard governing the storage and handling of explosives was unconstitutionally vague and that the Department of Labor failed to meet its burden to show that the company’s storage and handling of explosives presented an undue hazard to its employees.

The standard “is clear and unambiguous as applied here and does not violate due process,” the appellate court said.

“A reasonable person responsible for employee safety would have understood the storage and handling of explosives in the old facility created an undue hazard,” the court continued. “The danger of ignition from the black gunpowder and broken fireworks that littered the old facility constituted a hazard for employees.”

The company also contended it could not be cited for the forklift violation because OSHA did not test for combustible dust when inspecting the worksite — an argument rejected by the appellate court because the standard does not require testing and the department presented sufficient evidence for the judge to conclude that Jake’s Fireworks used an unauthorized forklift in proximity to combustible dust at the facility, according to the ruling.

The appellate court also rejected the company’s argument that it was exempt from the requirement to have a hazardous communication program.

An attorney for the company could not be immediately reached for comment.