ESPARTO, Calif. — Days before the Fourth of July holiday, a fireworks factory in California exploded.
The explosion happened on July 1 and it set off fireworks on the property, causing a large fire, leading to other, smaller fires, and a building collapse, The Associated Press reported.
It occurred in a warehouse, KXTV reported.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation. Officials had to evacuate one mile around the site, KHSL reported.
There were no reports of injuries.
People were told to avoid the area for days because of the fire.
“The fire will take time to cool, and once it does, explosive experts must safely enter the site to assess and secure the area,” the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release posted to Facebook.
“We do believe this location is owned by an active pyrotechnic license holder,” Deputy State Fire Marshal Kara Garrett told KXTV. “This type of incident is very rare, as facilities like this are required to not only follow our stringent California pyrotechnic requirements, but also federal explosive storage requirements.”
The American Pyrotechnics Association is waiting to find out the cause.
“What happened at that facility that would have sparked such a significant explosion and for it to unfold so very, very quickly? And, I think that’s what we’re eager to know. Again, the firework industry has an impeccable record when it comes to safety, and so getting to the bottom of what sparked this particular incident is very important to us,” the organization’s executive director, Julie Heckman, told KXTV.
Heckman said there are strict rules for how fireworks can be stored.
“Backyard consumer fireworks are very restricted in the amount of pyrotechnic composition that they may contain. They are limited to a maximum of 500g of pyrotechnic composition, whereas professional commercial fireworks can exceed that in multitudes of levels,” Heckman said.
She believes that there were potentially commercial-grade fireworks involved, not just the ones that are used in backyards, because of how firefighters attacked the blaze.
“The emergency response for a fire involving professional commercial fireworks is do not fight the fire, secure the area, evacuate everyone, and let the event happen. You never try to fight a fire with professional fireworks. Consumer fireworks on the other hand, you can wet down the area next to it,” Heckman told KXTV.
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