A scathing report released by a Yolo County Grand Jury on Thursday found widespread lack of oversight and enforcement led to the deadly fireworks explosion last July that killed seven workers at a Yolo County warehouse. Among the dead, four had ties to the Bay Area.
The jury said that public records indicate various top Yolo County officials “were aware of illegal fireworks
operations at the site for at least three years prior to the incident.”
“Inexplicably, no code enforcement occurred, even though all dangerous fireworks had been banned by ordinance throughout rural Yolo County since 2001,” the jury said.
“In the absence of official oversight and enforcement, unmitigated expansion of the fireworks businesses operating at the site in Esparto led directly to death and destruction from the Esparto Fireworks Explosion,” the report continued.
The 32-page report from the jury was the product of months of investigation and interviews. The jury did not mince words with the title of the report: “Esparto Fireworks Explosion: Officials Knew, None Acted.”
The explosion itself happened on July 1, 2025, at a farm where Devastating Pyrotechnics LLC and Blackstar Fireworks, Inc. “manufactured and stored dangerous fireworks without the benefit of local operating permits and business licenses,” the report notes.
NBC Bay Area has reached out to Yolo County for comment about this report and is awaiting a response.
