7 people missing after fireworks warehouse explosion in California
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Clouds of smoke rising over explosions on July 1 at a fireworks storage warehouse in Esparto, California.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – Seven people remained missing on July 2 in California, a day after a fireworks warehouse explosion injured two victims and sparked a giant fire.
The explosion occurred late on July 1 after a fire broke out in a warehouse located in the town of Esparto, in the northern part of the state.
“Seven individuals remain unaccounted for,” California’s state firefighting agency said in a statement. “First responders and investigators are working diligently with the property owner to determine the whereabouts of those individuals.”
The two injured people have been located and are now out of danger, according to the authorities.
However, firefighters have still not been able to access the warehouse because the fireworks held inside can still explode.
Esparto Fire Chief Curtis Lawrence called the situation “very complex and risky”.
“There were, you know, reports of a large debris field of large pieces of shrapnel spread out across a large area,” he said during a news conference.
“So we maintained a wide perimeter of a wide berth around this area today into the day, and we kept our responders in a safe location.”
The authorities’ cautious response angered some relatives of the victims.
A woman interrupted the news conference and complained she had no information about her boyfriend and two brothers-in-law who were among the missing.
She accused the firefighters of not “focusing on the people who are stuck in the warehouse, possibly dead”.
“People have possibly lost their lives because of you guys not doing your job well enough,” the woman, who did not identify herself, said.
Following the accident, several nearby towns announced they would have to cancel their fireworks displays scheduled for July 4, when America celebrates its Independence Day.
“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,” Cal Fire said in its statement. AFP
