7 people unaccounted for following Yolo County fireworks facility explosion

By KTVU FOX 2

Published July 2, 2025 12:57 PM

By Greg Grinsell and Amanda Quintana

ESPARTO, Calif. (KTVU) - Seven people were unaccounted for on Wednesday, following a massive explosion at a fireworks' storage facility in Yolo County, CalFire and emergency operations officials said.

First reponders and crews were trying to find these missing people by air, according to Yolo County Office of Emergency Services' spokeswoman Laura Galindo and CalFire spokesman Jason Clay.

Both said they are trying to work with the pyrotechnic license holder, who they didn't name, because facilities like this are required to follow stringent California rules as well as federal explosive storage requirements.

They also said that the facility remains an "active crime scene."

The explosive scene was reported just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the town of Esparto, an agricultural town that is part of the Sacramento-metropolitan area.

The specific address is located near County Road 23 and County Road 86A, though officials did not name the facility where it happened.

Julian Grant lives nearby and described hearing what it sounded like when the entire building exploded. He said he was taking a nap at the time.

"I woke up out of a dead sleep and I thought it was an earthquake," Grant said on Wednesday. I felt the whole apartment shake, the windows rattle. I thought the window was going to just break out. It felt like someone grabbed the apartments and just shook them. When I was outside looking at the smoke and everything, I felt another explosion that shook everything - the cement, the ground, the stairways, everything."

Esparto Fire Protection District Chief Curtis Lawrence told reporters that he sent up drones to assess the damage.

Some homeowners in the area have already begun surveying the damage in the area.

Patrick Sribner told sister station KCRA3 that the explosion ended up blowing out his French doors, including the casing and plaster.

"When we first got in, there was plaster all over the steps here," he said. "When I went to open the door, it all fell on the inside and I figured out what was going on."