Family of workers missing from Esparto fireworks explosion calls for answers
Tears streaked the faces of Jhony Ramos Sr. and Mercedes Lemos soon after arriving outside of the evacuation zone perimeter butting against Esparto on Thursday afternoon.
Roughly a mile away, at a rural lot leveled earlier this week by powerful explosions at a fireworks storage site, was the last known location of their missing sons and grandsons.
“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 remained “unaccounted for” following the blasts that devastated the site.
Authorities have not publicly identified the missing. However, family members said they include Jesus and Jhonny Ramos Jr., ages 18 and 22. Their stepbrother, Joel Melendez, is also missing.
Ramos Sr., who traveled with family from Los Angeles after hearing of the explosions, said officials had not provided updates on their whereabouts. Syanna Ruiz, the 18-year-old girlfriend of Jesus Ramos, had also voiced frustration over the lack of information during a news conference the previous day.
The identities of the other four missing individuals had not been confirmed as of a Thursday afternoon briefing, where officials declined to answer questions from reporters and family members.
Witnesses near the facility described a sequence of blasts that shook buildings in Esparto and were felt as far as Woodland, about 14 miles away. The explosions ignited grass fires across 80 acres, which firefighters contained shortly after the incident.
Emergency crews continued working at the main blast site, where the missing were believed to have last been.
A response team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined local agencies in efforts to secure and extinguish the site. Meanwhile, families of the missing remained in limbo.
“There are thousands of questions,” Lemos said. “There are no answers.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM.
