A Northern California warehouse storing fireworks caught fire and exploded Tuesday, sending a fireball into the air, launching debris and causing pyrotechnics to detonate above the site as seven people “remained unaccounted for,” officials said.
Some Yolo County residents, near the Esparto area northwest of Sacramento, were forced to flee.
“There is a reduced risk today (Wednesday), but a risk that still remains and thus the evacuation orders are in place,” according to Laura Galindo, a spokesperson for the Yolo County Office of Emergency Services.
“Site assessment is ongoing to assess the hazards. It is the goal to get residents back to their homes and possibly reduce the footprint of that evacuation zone. Seven individuals remain unaccounted for.”
Firefighters responded to the fire at around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday and found “a few commercial buildings well-involved, as well as numerous explosions and numerous spot fires throughout the area,” Esparto Fire Protection District Chief Curtis Lawrence said.
Smoke billows and fire burns after an explosion at a fireworks facility in Esparto, Calif., on Tuesday.KCRA
Helicopter video taken by NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento showed fires at the facility, including at least one building ablaze, and fireworks launching into the air and detonating.
The video shows white smoke rushing from inside the building out through the roof before a large explosion and fireball, with many airbursts from fireworks.
The cause of the fire and explosion was unknown Tuesday night, the sheriff’s office said.
The one large warehouse fire caused multiple spot fires, covering an area of around 80 acres in total, Lawrence said.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit said it was responding to the commercial and vegetation fire in Yolo County.
The agency, known as Cal Fire, is investigating the cause of the fire, but a representative from the sheriff’s office said Tuesday night that there was nothing apparently criminal. Drones were being used to assess the damage.
Yolo County issued an evacuation order for what fire officials have named the Oakdale Fire, but some people were allowed to return Tuesday night. People south of an area south of Highway 16 remained under an evacuation order.
Esparto is a community of around 3,000 almost 30 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The explosion happened near the border between Esparto and Madison, which lies to the east, the sheriff’s office said.
David K. Li and Lindsay Good contributed.
