ESPARTO, Calif. (BN24) — Authorities confirmed Saturday that the remains of all seven workers who vanished after a massive fireworks warehouse explosion in Yolo County, California, have been recovered.
The coroner’s office is working to formally identify the victims. Autopsies and DNA testing are scheduled to begin in the coming week to confirm their identities.
The devastating blasts erupted Tuesday evening at the Devastating Pyrotechnics warehouse in Esparto, which was not legally permitted to store fireworks, county officials said. Multiple structures burned to the ground, and fast-moving grass fires scorched roughly 80 acres of surrounding land.
The property belongs to Yolo County Sheriff’s Lt. Sam Machado. County officials said Machado’s home was among the buildings destroyed. It remains unclear whether he was injured in the explosions.
Since the incident, teams from the state fire marshal’s office and regional agencies have been at the site around the clock. On Saturday, authorities said they planned controlled detonations to safely dispose of undetonated fireworks and other hazardous materials still scattered across the wreckage.
The search for victims was hampered by safety concerns and unstable debris. On Friday, officials reported that human remains had been located when the coroner’s division first gained access to parts of the blast zone, but they were not able to confirm how many victims had been found until Saturday.
Family members have identified four of the missing workers: three brothers — 18-year-old Jesus Ramos, 22-year-old Johny Ramos, and 28-year-old Junior Melendez — and Carlos Rodriguez.
Local and federal investigators are expected to continue examining how such a large cache of fireworks came to be stored illegally in the warehouse and what triggered the explosions.
