K9 Protection Dogs in Sacramento, CA

Sacramento, California AP —

Investigators have located human remains following an explosion at a Northern California fireworks warehouse, Yolo County said in a statement Friday.

Seven were missing after the Tuesday fireworks explosion near Esparto, which gripped the small farming community. It sparked a massive fire that led to other spot fires. Nearby Fourth of July celebrations were called off.

The county confirmed that its Coroner’s Division was allowed access to the site of the fire incident, and the Coroner’s Office has been in contact with the families of those who had been reported missing. No positive identifications have been made, and recovery efforts are still underway, the county said in the statement.

Two people were treated for injuries according to officials. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blast.

The warehouse was managed by Devastating Pyrotechnics, which has more than three decades of experience designing and producing fireworks shows in the Bay Area, according to a screenshot of its website before it was taken down. The company, with headquarters in both San Francisco and Esparto, focuses mainly on display fireworks for big productions instead of those for retail. The company said in a statement it would cooperate fully with officials in their investigation.

Further south in the state, authorities said that one man was found dead on the scene after a “fireworks-related blaze” ripped through four homes in a Los Angeles neighborhood Thursday night. A woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition, four others were given treatment for smoke inhalation on the scene and several animals were injured, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.

Fireworks were still erupting in the area when firefighters arrived at the blaze, which they brought under control later that night, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, department spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz said.

FLORIN, Calif. —

Emergency crews responded to a grass fire that spread to an outbuilding in south Sacramento on Thursday afternoon.

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According to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the fire burned at least two acres in the 7500 block of Elsie Avenue near Stockton Boulevard.

Firefighters were able to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading to other outbuildings and structures in the area, officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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Tears streaked the faces of Jhony Ramos Sr. and Mercedes Lemos soon after arriving Thursday afternoon outside of the evacuation zone perimeter butting against Esparto.

About a mile south — at a rural corner lot since flattened by Tuesday’s calamitous explosions at a fireworks storage facility — laid the place where their missing sons and grandsons, respectively, were last known to be.

“There is nothing,” Lemos told reporters in Spanish when asked what the family had been told by authorities. “And why? We are all human. They are indifferent. And how can they be? ... We all eat, we all feel and we all need.”

Seven people remain “unaccounted for” after the blast obliterated the facility along with nearby homes and outbuildings.

Meanwhile, a national Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms response team was called to Esparto. The specialized team assembles for major fire and explosives investigations, like the Esparto blaze dubbed the Oakdale Fire, for a nearby road where pyrotechnics were hurled after Tuesday’s first blast.

The team is made up of ATF special agents, fire investigators and forensic chemists; fire protection and electrical engineers; explosives specialists, intelligence researchers and accelerant-detecting dog teams.

National Response Teams have responded to some of the most notable disasters in recent U.S. history, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the September 11, 2001, terror attack on the World Trade Center.

The rapid response team will assist investigators who have been poring over the explosion site since Tuesday night, Cal Fire officials said in a Wednesday evening update as the search for answers into the blast continues now into a third day in still-unstable conditions.

In a statement, officials at Devastating Pyrotechnics, whose facilities were destroyed in the explosion, offered thoughts to the families of those believed lost in the blast and gratitude to first responders who rushed to the scene.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with those we lost, their families, and everyone impacted in our community,” the statement read. “We are grateful for the swift response of law enforcement and emergency personnel. Our focus will remain on those directly impacted by this tragedy, and we will cooperate fully with the proper authorities in their investigation.”

The company’s attorney, Douglas Horngrad, offered little else, saying that “while we understand the public’s need for more information about the warehouse facility in Esparto, we cannot provide any further comment at this time.”

No other officials from the San Francisco-based company have discussed the incident with The Sacramento Bee or responded to repeated inquiries about the inferno.

The pain in this rural community in far western Yolo County, about 30 miles west of Sacramento, has intensified as the names and the stories of the missing remain known.

But family members have said that among them are Jesús and Jhony Ramos Jr., 18 and 22 years old, respectively. Their brother Joel “Junior” Melendez also remains missing.

Ramos Sr., who traveled with family from Los Angeles after learning of the explosions, told reporters Thursday that authorities had not given the family more information about their missing relatives. Syanna Ruiz, the 18-year-old girlfriend of Jesús Ramos, had also spoken out on the lack of information about the missing at the end of a news conference Wednesday.

”They were, all three, incredible men who had so much coming for them, that had so much coming their way,” Ruiz told The Bee on Wednesday. “I’m just praying to God that some way, somehow, they’re okay.”

The family was told by authorities they would hear an update by Saturday.

Esparto Fire Chief Curtis Lawrence at a Wednesday news conference said crews could not go onto the site due to the dangers that remained. Recovering the bodies of the blast victims was a “big concern,” Lawrence said when Ruiz asked what fire crews were doing on that front.

Melendez is the father of an 11-month-old son. His wife, Maria, is expecting their second child, her cousin, Marilly Kepoo-Galicia, said in a GoFundMe appeal for the family.

“This tragic accident has taken so much from so many, and for Maria, it’s shattered her entire world,” Kepoo-Galicia wrote. “What should be a joyful and hopeful time has instead become filled with fear, uncertainty, and heartbreak.”

Authorities on Thursday said the priority for Esparto and local fire crews was to gain access to the ruined facility so authorities can begin to recover those lost in the disaster and “bolster investigative efforts for the explosion investigation.”

The pyrotechnics explosions at the fireworks warehouse in the 26400 block of County Road 23 near County Road 86A, about a mile south of Highway 16, was said to have ignited numbers of spot fires in the area. Cal Fire said the Oakdale Fire blackened 78 acres before crews halted forward progress Tuesday night.

Mathew Davis, a spokesperson for the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, addressed the missing individuals’ families at the news conference, acknowledging their concerns but saying personnel cannot move forward with the recovery effort until the scene is safe.

“It’s important that we operate safely, carefully and securely and in a dignified manner that respects all involved,” Davis said. “We cannot move forward and risk any more injury to anyone else on this scene.”

Lawrence, the town’s fire chief, said firefighters had begun “targeted fire suppression efforts” to mitigate the risks of recovery and said the area was “a little bit” safer for responders.

The identities of four others who remained missing were unknown and officials at Thursday’s news conference refused to answer any questions from reporters or the relatives among the scrum.

While Lawrence could not confirm the number of individuals that were forced to evacuate, he said more than 150 PG&E customers were affected by power outages relating to the incident. By Thursday afternoon, 89 customers in the area were without power controlled by a substation on the 18500 block of County Road 89, roughly two miles east of the fire, according to data collected by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Yolo County District 5 Supervisor Angel Barajas said on Thursday that the board, along with various agencies, were investigating the incident to see whether proper procedures were followed. Barajas said if protocols were violated, the board would “revise and modify” them to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

“We have trust in our partners and our agencies that the investigation is going to be transparent,” Barajas said at Thursday’s press conference. “We want to make sure that it becomes a quick and a timely investigation, but we’re going to leave the subject-matter experts to perform those duties.”

Barajas said the county has provided the families of those unaccounted for with food and hotel vouchers as well as counseling services.

“First and foremost, our priority is the families making sure that they’re comfortable during this investigation and this recovery procedure,” Barajas said.

For frustrated loved ones of the missing and authorities alike, questions remain.

What triggered the blast?

Were additional materials beside fireworks stored at the site?

Did more than one company store its pyrotechnics there?

People near the facility when the explosions took place just about 6 p.m. described a sequence of blasts that rattled buildings and homes in nearby Esparto and was felt by some in Woodland, about 14 miles away. The large blasts, followed by a series of fireworks rattling off from the burning facility, sparked multiple grass fires that firefighters controlled soon after the explosions.

“There are thousands of questions,” Lemos said. “There are no answers.”

Explosions at pyrotechnics facilities are extremely rare, Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, an industry group, told The Sacramento Bee this week. Human interaction is almost always the culprit, she said, triggering catastrophe.

Storage facilities like the doomed Esparto site must be licensed by both state fire authorities and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Heckman, a member of Cal Fire’s fireworks advisory committee, and must be specially built with materials that do not create sparks or static electricity.

Fireworks for Friday’s Independence Day festivities from Marysville to Placerville and the north Bay Area were stored at the Yolo County facility, the blast forcing organizers to reschedule, postpone or cancel their events.

Marisol Ramos walked up to the smoldering rubble and wailed.

Fireworks sparked and rippled nearby behind crumbled walls and strewn-about debris where three of her children had been working hours before.

She called their names through heavy sobs. No one answered.

Ramos shared video with reporters Thursday, showing that Tuesday night she had gone to the burning fireworks facility in Esparto hours after the warehouse her children had been working at caught fire and exploded, pouring smoke high into the air and reverberating through the nearby town.

“We went inside. Why they cannot go?” Ramos said of the authorities’ handling the scene. “We’re the heroes. There’s no heroes for me no more.”

Her sons Jesús, 18, Jhony, 22, and 28-year-old Joel “Junior” Melendez are among seven people who remain unaccounted for in the aftermath of the explosion. Authorities have yet to identify any of the missing people but said they were making progress in securing the explosion site.

Late Thursday, officials said evacuations had been reduced “in select areas” as firefighters and investigators worked to put out spot fires and begin sifting the rubble for answers.

“Due to the presence of known explosive materials on site, explosive ordinance disposal experts are working alongside fire personnel to ensure safety during suppression activities,” they said.

Family members were the ones to identify their three missing relatives, and have questioned the response and search efforts from local responders.

“We have received no information from nobody,” Ramos said. “That’s why we’re here every day ... to find out what’s going on.”

Ramos said that she first learned of the explosion through a friend before traveling to the facility the night of the fire, and has relied on media reports for updates.

Relatives have traveled from Los Angeles and the Bay Area and are currently staying in Sacramento. The Yolo County officials have provided them with hotel and food vouchers.

Matthew Davis, Yolo County undersheriff, told reporters Thursday that officials must ensure the scene is safe before moving forward with the missing persons search, so as to not risk more injuries.

“We must ask and beg for your patience,” Davis said.

By late afternoon, there were about 15 family members of Ramos’ three missing sons waiting outside the roadblocks that remained for a second full day. Family members waited outside the barriers through the afternoon.

“I need the ashes of my three babies,” Ramos said.

New California state laws will make it easier for developers to build housing in areas of Sacramento that are outside downtown and midtown.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed laws to loosen parts of the California Environmental Quality Act, which groups sometimes use to block new housing across the state.

While the city of Sacramento had already rolled back parts of CEQA for downtown and midtown, building infill housing in other parts of the city will now be faster and cheaper, which means there could be more of it, said Wesley Sagewalker, chief financial officer of Gateway Development.

If the state had made the change earlier, Gateway Development and Urban Capital LLC would have saved a lot of time and money to get city approvals to build 220 tiny homes for homeless permanent housing in North Sacramento and south Sacramento, they agreed.

“We would’ve saved thousands of dollars in land use attorney fees,” Sagewalker said. “We also would’ve avoided delays that almost caused us to miss the deadline (to secure state Homekey funding).”

Project Homekey is a program that awards state funding to new projects that will provide permanent housing for the homeless.

In addition to making it easier to get approval for government entities, the new law will likely cut down on CEQA lawsuits. In recent Sacramento CEQA lawsuits, judges have ultimately typically ruled that the project can continue. However, it can take years to get a ruling.

“Those two to three year delays come with hundreds of thousands of dollars of direct legal costs,” Sagewalker said. “In that time interest rates can be hiked and your project can go underwater. These delays can be a death nail.”

Two organizations last year filed CEQA lawsuits against an LPA Design Studios plan to build four infill high-rise towers with 787 market-rate apartments along the American River. A judge eventually ruled the project, called American River One, could move forward.

“(Without the lawsuit), the approvals would have been final and ready for the next entitlements [further plans, building permits, etc.] last fall,” Sabrina Teller, attorney for the property owners, 500 Bercut LLC and IM Investments Inc., said in an email. “Only now is the project owner finally clear of the litigation cloud, so the delay caused by litigation was approximately nine months. Of course, now with building materials becoming more expensive since last fall, that delay will cause more expense.”

It’s unclear when the project will be built, said Anthony Scotch, a broker involved with the project. It still needs a developer.

It’s not clear if the law will help all CEQA lawsuits. A neighborhood association filed a CEQA lawsuit against a planned 81-unit apartment building in Carmichael. The litigation is ongoing.

“County counsel said it is unlikely that this case will be affected by (the new state law),” said Kim Nava, a county spokesperson.

A group of more than 100 environmental groups across the state Friday sent a letter to Newsom and lawmakers opposing the bill, saying it would get rid of important environmental protections.

“This bill is the worst anti-environmental bill in California in recent memory,” the letter said. “It represents an unprecedented rollback to California’s fundamental environmental and community protections at a time in which the people of California grapple with unprecedented federal attacks to their lives and livelihoods.”